Facebook to reinstate Donald Trump’s account suspended after Capitol riot

More than two years since it was removed, Donald Trump’s account will be reinstated so the public can ‘hear what politicians are saying so they can make informed choices’.

Social networking giant Meta says that it would, in the coming weeks, "end the suspension" of Donald Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts, two years after the former US president was banned following the assault on the Capitol. Picture: AFP

Facebook has reinstated former US President Donald Trump’s account, more than two years after it was suspended in the wake of the January 6 Capitol riot.

Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. said Wednesday (Thursday AEDT) that “we will be ending the suspension of Mr Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts in the coming weeks.” It added, “The public should be able to hear what politicians are saying so they can make informed choices.” The company suspended Mr Trump’s Facebook account indefinitely in January 2021 after determining that he had praised violence committed by his supporters at the US Capitol in response to false claims of a stolen election. His Instagram account was also suspended.

“His decision to use his platform to condone rather than condemn the actions of his supporters at the Capitol building has rightly disturbed people in the US and around the world,” Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said at the time.

Meta had indicated it would eventually restore Mr Trump’s access, writing months after it took the action in January that it would punish his account for additional violations of its rules “when the suspension is eventually lifted.” Twitter Inc. also suspended Mr Trump’s personal account around the same time. Elon Musk last year reinstated Mr Trump’s account; Mr Musk had said in May that he planned to do so once he took over the platform. Mr Musk closed the $US44bn ($62bn) deal in October and soon after lifted the suspension days after Mr Trump said he would make another run for the White House.

Mr Trump hasn’t resumed posting on Twitter since the account restoration on that platform.

Snapchat parent Snap Inc. also locked Mr Trump’s account indefinitely. His account there remained locked as of early January.

Mr Trump was a regular user of social-media platforms before running for office and while in the White House, though Twitter, where he had 87 million followers, was his preferred platform. His posts to Facebook, where he had 34 million followers, consisted largely of material cross-posted from Twitter.

Facebook was historically more important to Mr Trump as a fundraising vehicle. During Mr Trump’s suspension from the platform, his campaign continued to run Facebook ads.

After Facebook suspended Mr Trump, the platform’s outside Oversight Board reviewed the suspension. While the group broadly agreed with the action, it objected to it lasting for an indeterminate amount of time. Facebook in June 2021 said that the suspension would last at least two years and that it would revisit the decision in January 2023, two years following the original suspension.

Mr Trump, at the time, objected to the suspension.

After being effectively kicked off mainstream social-media platforms, Mr Trump launched his own social-media platform, called Truth Social, where he has nearly five million followers. Mr Trump is obligated for some time to make any social-media posts first on Truth Social, though there are exceptions, including posts from a personal account for certain political activities, according to a regulatory filing.

The Wall Street Journal