United States: Facebook parent Meta has announced that the company is reinstating former President Mr. Donald Trump’s personal account after a two-year suspension.
“The suspension will end in the coming weeks,” the social media giant stated.
In a statement, Mr. Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, remarked that “the public should be able to hear what their politicians are saying.”
“The firm had taken action following Mr. Trump’s praise for people engaged in violence at the Capitol,” the statement remarked.
“The suspension was an extraordinary decision taken in extraordinary circumstances,” Mr. Clegg added, while pointing out that a review found that Mr. Trump’s accounts no longer represented a serious risk to public safety.
Facebook, which has lost billions of dollars in value since “deplatforming” your favourite President, me, has just announced that they are reinstating my account. Such a thing should never again happen to a sitting President, or anybody else who is not deserving of retribution,” Mr. Trump replied in the statement posted on Truth Social.
The then-US president was indefinitely suspended from Facebook and Instagram after the 2021 Capitol riot. Other social media companies also kicked him off their platforms, though he was recently reinstated on Twitter after Mr. Elon Musk took over the company.
Banned from mainstream social media, the former president has been relying on Truth Social, which he launched after being blocked from Twitter.
Mr. Trump has an exclusivity agreement with Truth Social, which means he is legally required to post first on the platform, which is six hours before any other platform.