USA Meta lifts remaining restrictions for Trump

The Facebook group Meta is lifting the remaining restrictions on former President Donald Trump ahead of the hot phase of the election campaign for the White House. This means he no longer faces harsher penalties for breaking the rules.

Trump already got his Facebook and Instagram accounts back at the beginning of 2023. However, as a repeat offender, he could have been banned again for even minor violations of the platforms' rules.

In an update to the blog post at the time, Meta pointed out that Trump would soon be officially nominated as the Republican Party's presidential candidate. And the public had the right to hear from the candidates of both parties on the same basis. At the same time, the group emphasized that all candidates would continue to be subject to all rules, which are intended to keep hate speech or insults off the platform, for example.

Banned after storming the Capitol

Trump was banned from major online platforms towards the end of his term of office after his supporters stormed the seat of the US Parliament in Washington on January 6, 2021. Prior to the unprecedented events, he had incited his supporters with the baseless claim that he had been cheated out of victory in the 2020 presidential election.

In his online messages before and after the Capitol attack, he openly showed sympathy for the rioters. The platform operators feared that there could be new violence if Trump was not banned.

The Facebook group had initially banned Trump until further notice. However, Meta's independent supervisory body, which can review decisions on content and accounts, ultimately came to the conclusion that an indefinite ban was not covered by the platform's rules. It ruled that Trump's accounts on Facebook and Instagram could initially only be blocked for two years - and would then have to be reconsidered.

SDA