Facebook parent Meta has restored former President Donald Trump’s personal account, ending a controversial two-year suspension it imposed in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
For Trump’s fledgling 2024 presidential campaign, the restoration on Facebook and Instagram is very good news. Social media was an important fundraising vehicle for Trump’s political campaigns before his ban.
The company said in a blog post it has added “new guardrails” to Trump’s account.
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“The public should be able to hear what their politicians are saying — the good, the bad and the ugly — so that they can make informed choices at the ballot box,” wrote Nick Clegg, Meta’s vice president of global affairs.
“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,” he wrote.
Previously banned from major mainstream social media, Trump has been relying on Truth Social, which he launched after being blocked from Twitter.
Facebook is not only the world’s largest social media site, but had been a crucial source of fundraising revenue for Trump’s campaigns, which spent millions of dollars on the company’s ads in 2016 and 2020. The move will not only allow Trump to communicate directly with his 34 million followers — dramatically more than the 4.8 million who currently follow him on Truth Social — but will also allow him to resume direct fundraising. During the suspension, his supporters were able to raise money for him, but couldn’t run ads directly from him or in his voice.
When the news was first announced, Trump blasted Facebook’s original decision to suspend his account as he praised Truth Social.
“FACEBOOK, which has lost Billions of Dollars in value since “deplatforming” your favorite President, me, has just announced that they are reinstating my account. Such a thing should never again happen to a sitting President, or anybody else who is not deserving of retribution!” he wrote.
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Trump was recently reinstated on Twitter after Elon Musk took over the company. He has not tweeted yet, and has not yet posted on Facebook.
Trump has insisted publicly that he has no intention of returning to Twitter or other social media platforms. But insiders say he has been discussing doing so in recent weeks.
Facebook remains the world’s largest social media site and is an incredibly powerful political platform, particularly among older Americans, who are more likely to vote and give money to campaigns.
The Horn editorial team and the Associated Press contributed to this article