Meta Weighs Reinstating Trump’s Facebook Account After 2-Year Ban

Topline

Facebook parent company Meta is considering whether to allow former President Donald Trump back on the social media platform in the next few weeks, roughly two years after he was banned in the wake of the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, although Facebook warns it could hit Trump with “sanctions” for future policy violations.

Meta’s two-year ban on Trump’s Facebook account expires on Saturday, and the company is considering … [+] whether to bring him back.

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Key Facts

Meta spokesperson Andy Stone told Forbes the company will announce its decision regarding its potential reinstatement of Trump’s account “in the coming weeks.”

Trump’s two-year ban expires on Saturday, and could be lifted if the company determines the “risk to public safety has receded,” the company said in mid-2021.

The decision would be in line with the process Meta laid out in 2021, Stone said, when the company suspended Trump for his “praise for people engaged in violence” at the Capitol, and his “decision to use his platform to condone rather than condemn the actions of his supporters at the capitol building”—reversing its initial decision to implement an indefinite ban.

At the time of Trump’s suspension, Facebook Vice President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg said the company would evaluate “external factors, including instances of violence, restrictions on peaceful assembly and other markers of civil unrest” in determining whether to restore his account, and if the risk of lifting Trump’s suspension is too severe, it will be extended “for a set period of time.”

What To Watch For

Whether Facebook imposes further restrictions on Trump’s account if he is reinstated. An internal working group that consists of multiple department heads—including Meta’s communications, content policy, safety and integrity teams—has been tasked with making the decision on whether or not to bring back Trump, CNN reported. In a statement, Clegg warned Facebook would implement a “strict set of rapidly escalating sanctions” if Trump violates the company’s policies in the future. That includes the possibility of “permanent removal” of his account.

Key Background

Facebook banned Trump’s account indefinitely the day after rioters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to disrupt the certification of Trump’s loss in the 2020 presidential election. In June 2020, however, Facebook revised its decision to a two-year ban that could be extended depending on the “risk to public safety,” after the company’s Oversight Board—a group within the company that reviews content moderation decisions—criticized Meta’s indefinite ban. Clegg also warned any public figures that “aid, abet, foment or praise acts of violence,” would be banned for crossing Facebook’s “red line,” telling ABC News that spreading disinformation alone is not enough to warrant a ban. Trump accused Facebook of “censoring and silencing” him by suspending his account, calling the ban an “insult to the record-setting 75M people, plus many others, who voted for us in the 2020 Rigged Presidential Election.”

Contra

The end of Trump’s two-year Facebook ban comes two months after Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk reinstated Trump’s account on the platform, although the former president rejected Musk’s offer, opting instead to remain on his social media site, Truth Social. Trump had also been banned from Twitter following the January 6 insurrection, after he tweeted he “loved” the rioters, called them “American patriots” and the riots “things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is unceremoniously & viciously stripped away.”

Tangent

Although Meta says Trump’s use of Facebook to support the mob storming the Capitol caused the former president’s two-year suspension, Trump had also been harshly criticized for spreading misinformation on the platform, including the baseless theory that the 2020 election was stolen from him and an unfounded statement that Covid-19 is “less lethal” than the flu. Facebook deleted his post on Covid and labeled his stolen election theory with a clarification that ballots can take weeks to count. During the racial justice protests in 2020, Trump also posted suggestions that looters could be shot—which Facebook declined to remove, sparking criticism that the platform was being too lenient and prompting several employees to quit. In an effort to curb disinformation spreading on the platform, Facebook added fact-check labels in the run-up to the 2020 election, launched pages dedicated to pre-vetted election information, and created security features to prevent foreign election interference.

Surprising Fact

A study published last month by left-wing free speech advocacy group Accountable Tech suggested that more than 350 of Trump’s posts on Truth Social would have violated Facebook’s policies, including his baseless election denial allegations, his promotion of far-right conspiracy group QAnon, as well as posts that would violate Facebook’s harassment against marginalized groups policy.

Meta Weighs Reinstating Trump’s Facebook Account After 2-Year Ban—Here’s How It Will Work