Meta has announced that it will restore former US President Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts in the coming weeks. Trump’s accounts were suspended two years ago in the wake of violence at the Capitol Hill.
“We indefinitely suspended then-US President Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts following his praise for people engaged in violence at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. We then referred that decision to the Oversight Board — an expert body established to be an independent check and balance on our decision-making,” Meta said in its blog post.
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Meta, after imposing a time-bound suspension of two years from the date of the original suspension on January 07, 2021, introduced a new crisis policy protocol.
“To assess whether the serious risk to public safety that existed in January 2021 has sufficiently receded, we have evaluated the current environment according to our Crisis Policy Protocol, which included looking at the conduct of the US 2022 midterm elections, and expert assessments on the current security environment. Our determination is that the risk has sufficiently receded and that we should therefore adhere to the two-year timeline we set out,” the company said.
Like any other Instagram or Facebook user, the company added that Trump is subject to following the platform’s community standards. Violation will attract penalties leading to content removal or suspension of account, depending on the severity of the act.
Trump was reinstated by Twitter in November last year after Elon Musk took over social media company.
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