EDITOR’S NOTE: Todd Starnes owns one of the top conservative radio stations in the nation. Click here to download his free app so you can listen to conservative news and talk 24-7.
Mark Zuckerburg’s Meta announced it would soon reinstate former President Donald Trump’s accounts on Facebook and Instagram with “new guardrails,” just over two years since he was banned after the attack on the Capitol in 2021.
“We will be reinstating Mr. Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts in the coming weeks,” Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, said in a statement Wednesday, adding that the move would come with “new guardrails in place to deter repeat offenses.”
Clegg announced that these guardrails would include up to two years of suspension for each violation of platform policies.
If Trump posts “content that delegitimizes an upcoming election or is related to QAnon,” action will be taken against the former president who is running again in 2024.
This reversal of Trump’s removal from Facebook and Instagram comes months after the new CEO of Twitter, Elon Musk, lifted Trump’s ban on the platform.
It is unclear when or if Trump will return to any of these platforms, but in true Trump fashion, he announced on his Truth Social account that “Facebook had lost billions of dollars in value” in his absence.
After months of asking for the ban to be overturned, Trump’s lawyer Scott Gast said in a letter last week that Meta had “dramatically distorted and inhibited the public discourse.”
Gast asked for a meeting to discuss Trump’s “prompt reinstatement to the platform” of Facebook, arguing that his status as the leading contender for the Republican nomination in 2024 justified ending the ban.
American Civil Liberties Union executive director Anthony Romero said Meta was making “the right call” by allowing Trump back onto the social network. “Like it or not, President Trump is one of the country’s leading political figures, and the public is interested in hearing his speech,”
“Indeed, some of Trump’s most offensive social media posts ended up being critical evidence in lawsuits filed against him and his administration,” Romero stated.