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Social MediaDonald Trump may return to Facebook and Instagram
The blocked accounts of former US President Donald Trump on the online platforms Facebook and Instagram are released again.
That’s what it’s about
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Meta unblocks US President-elect Donald Trump’s accounts on Facebook and Instagram.
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These were blocked by radical Trump supporters after the storming of the US Capitol.
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In the case of “repeat offenses”, Trump faces “heavier penalties”.
The blocked accounts of former US President Donald Trump on the online platforms Facebook and Instagram are released again. “We will end the suspension of Mr. Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts in the coming weeks,” said parent company Meta on Wednesday. “The public should be able to hear what politicians are saying so they can make informed decisions.”
The accounts were blocked after radical Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Meta-politics chief Nick Clegg has now declared that “new protective barriers” have been put in place to prevent violations of the platform’s rules.
“Stronger Penalties for Repeat Offenses”
Trump would face “heavier penalties for repeat offenses” because of his previous violations of the user rules, Clegg said. If Trump posts additional content that violates the User Rules, “the content will be removed and he (Trump) will be banned for between one month and two years, depending on the severity of the violation.”
Trump responded to the meta decision on his own platform, Truth Social. Referring to his exile in January 2021, he said: “Things like this should never happen again to an incumbent president, or anyone else who doesn’t deserve retribution.”
Meta – then still Facebook – had blocked Trump’s accounts on the platforms a day after the Capitol storm that left five dead. The online giant, founded by Mark Zuckerberg, later set the duration of the ban at two years from the day of the lockdown on January 7, 2021. At the end of this time, experts would check whether the “risk to public safety” had decreased.
A Trump lawyer recently wrote to Zuckerberg asking for the ex-president’s Facebook account to be released. “The suspension of President Trump’s Facebook account has dramatically distorted and impeded public discourse,” Trump attorney Scott Gast wrote. The Republican should not be “silenced”, especially since he is a candidate for the 2024 presidential election.
Twitter has already lifted Donald Trump’s ban
In addition to Facebook and Instagram, other online platforms blocked Trump’s user accounts, citing fears of further violence. The short message service Twitter lifted the ban on the right-wing populist in mid-November last year, a few weeks after it was taken over by technology entrepreneur Elon Musk. Shortly before, Trump had announced that he wanted to run again in the November 2024 presidential election.
The ex-president, whose most important mouthpiece was Twitter, has not yet posted any new tweets. The 76-year-old has previously stated that he wanted to focus on the online platform Truth Social, which he founded.
However, Trump is far from reaching as broad a public via Truth Social as he once did via Twitter. Basically, his presidential bid has not developed the momentum he had hoped for. Many Republicans want to enter the next presidential race with a different candidate than the highly controversial ex-president, whom they blame for the party’s poor performance in last November’s midterm elections.
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(AFP/bre/chk)