This past Wednesday, META announced that it now plans to put an end to the suspension from both Instagram and Facebook against former President Donald Trump, stating that the penalty imposed after the 6th of January was “an extraordinary decision taken in extraordinary circumstances,” and issued a strong promise to enforce “certain guardrails” around Trump going forward.
The company did not actually state when Trump would finally be allowed to put out posts on the platforms but stated that it was quite sure that the “risk” he represented to public safety had passed. Twitter, which had also issued a suspension against Trump in the wake of the Capitol riot also recently un-banned by Trump, although the former president has not elected to come back and is making use of his own platform, Truth Social.
“We are bringing Mr. Trump back in the coming weeks with certain guardrails, applicable to any public figures suspended for certain violations during times of civil unrest,” read a statement from META.
The company chose to defend its highly polarizing 2021 choice, claiming that it did not want to actually interfere in any debate regarding the election and that its choice had been given approval by an oversight board. For the choice to lift its suspension, Meta stated that because of the past behavior from Trump in using the platform, he has been flagged for “heightened penalties for repeat offenses – penalties which will apply to other public figures whose accounts are reinstated from suspensions related to civil unrest under our updated protocol.”
“The penalties and potential restrictions we’ve put in place are a deterrent,” explained the statement, marking a warning that Trump could wind up with another suspension with a duration of one month up to two years if he chooses to go against the company once again.
The company made the claim that Trump had lauded the violent rioters within the Capitol, meriting his indefinite suspension and that after January 6, “the risks of allowing President Trump to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great.” Trump has openly denied praising or pushing the rioters, and did in fact take to social media as the riot was carried out to call on his supporters to disperse.
Both Twitter and Facebook have been heavily criticized for suspending Trump even as they let a number of other world leaders with histories of human rights violations to maintain a presence.
Trump was quick to respond to the announcement in a post to his Truth Social.
“Such a thing should never again happen to a sitting president or anybody else who is not deserving of retribution,” he expressed.
