After former US President Donald Trump called for the ban on his Facebook account to be reversed, parent company Meta has now announced that it will end the suspension of its accounts. “The public needs to be able to hear what politicians are saying so they can make informed decisions,” the company said.
Trump’s accounts were blocked after radical Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021. “We will end the suspension of Mr. Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts in the coming weeks,” Meta said Wednesday. The online giant, founded by Mark Zuckerberg, also said it had put “new protective barriers” in place to prevent violations of the platforms’ rules.
Trump was banned from Facebook and Instagram for more than two years
Meta – then Facebook – had blocked Trump’s accounts on the platforms a day after the Capitol storm with five deaths. The company later set the duration of the ban at two years from the date of the ban on January 7, 2021. At the end of this time, experts would check whether the “risk to public safety” had diminished. A Trump attorney recently wrote to Zuckerberg requesting that the ex-president’s Facebook account be released.
Twitter also lifted the ban
In addition to Facebook and Instagram, other online platforms blocked Trump’s user accounts, fearing further violence. Short-message service Twitter lifted its ban on the right-wing populist in mid-November last year, a few weeks after it was acquired by technology entrepreneur Elon Musk. Shortly before, Trump had announced that he wanted to run again in the 2024 presidential election.
The ex-president, whose main mouthpiece was Twitter, has yet to post any new tweets. The 76-year-old has previously indicated that he wants to focus on the online platform Truth Social, which he founded.
Source: Krone
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