Meta Platforms Inc. said Wednesday evening it will restore former President Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts.
Trump’s accounts had been suspended following the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. The restoration of his accounts comes after he announced back in November that he plans to run for reelection in 2024.
Trump has 34 million followers on Facebook and 23 million on Instagram.
In November Elon Musk, the new owner of social media site Twitter, revoked a permanent ban on Trump’s account on that site. It had been levied two days after January 6 “due to risk of further incitement of violence.”
Trump has reportedly been planning his return to Twitter, attempting to work out an end to his exclusivity deal with his own social media site, Truth Social. Trump has almost 88 million followers on Twitter versus just 5 million on Truth Social.
Ahead of reinstating Trump’s accounts, Meta had reportedly set up a working group to focus on the decision that included staffers from the public policy and communications teams, as well as from the content policy team. The Mark Zuckerberg-owned company had initially said the decision on Trump’s account would come around January 7, but it took another nearly three weeks before it was finalized.
Meta said in a blog post Wednesday it has “put new guardrails in place to deter repeat offenses.”
“In the event that Mr. Trump posts further violating content, the content will be removed and he will be suspended for between one month and two years, depending on the severity of the violation,” Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, wrote in the blog post.
