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Trump was banned on multiple social media platforms over his online behaviour during the January 6 Capitol riots read more
 "Meta rolls back restrictions on Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts")
Republican presidential candidate former US President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally, June 22, 2024, in Philadelphia. File Image/AP
As the race to the White House gets intense, Meta has removed restrictions it imposed on the Facebook and Instagram profiles of Former US President Donald Trump on Friday. It was in the year 2023 when the business mogul turned politician was allowed to return to the social media network with certain “guardrails” in place.
Trump was banned on multiple social media platforms over his online behaviour during the January 6 Capitol riots. “In assessing our responsibility to allow political expression, we believe that the American people should be able to hear from the nominees for president on the same basis,” Meta said in a blog on Friday. The post came days before the Republican National Convention which will formalise Trump’s nomination.
Meta made it clear that Trump’s account will no longer be subjected to heightened suspension penalties, which the tech giant previously said were created in response to “extreme and extraordinary circumstances” and “have not had to be deployed”.
“All US presidential candidates remain subject to the same community standards as all Facebook and Instagram users, including those policies designed to prevent hate speech and incitement to violence,” the company’s blog post reads.
Biden campaign condemns the move
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign condemned the move on Friday. They went on to call Meta’s decision “greedy and reckless” insisting the move constitutes a “direct attack on our safety and our democracy”.
“Restoring his access is like handing your car keys to someone you know will drive your car into a crowd and off a cliff,” said campaign spokesperson Charles Kretchmer Lutvak. “It is holding a megaphone for a bonafide racist who will shout his hate and white supremacy from the rooftops and try to take it mainstream,” he added.
Since his comeback on social media networks, Trump used his social networking platforms to primarily share campaign information, attacks on Democratic candidate Biden, and memes. The former president was allowed back on X, formally known as Twitter in 2023. He returned to YouTube in March 2023 but remains banned from Snapchat.
After facing bans and restrictions from various social media platforms, Trump founded his own social network TruthSocial in early 2022. Since then, he primarily used his TruthSocial account to unleash lethal attacks against his opponents.
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English (US) ·