Donald Trump will be allowed back on Facebook and Instagram after a two-year ban, Meta has said.
The former US President was suspended indefinitely from both social media platforms following the Capitol riot on January 6 2021.
Facebook and Instagram’s parent company Meta has announced that Trump's suspension will end ‘in the coming weeks’.
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In a blog post, the social media company said: “The suspension was an extraordinary decision taken in extraordinary circumstances.
"The normal state of affairs is that the public should be able to hear from a former President of the United States, and a declared candidate for that office again, on our platforms.”
It said it had assessed whether undoing the suspension would cause ‘serious risk to public safety’ and found ‘that the risk has sufficiently receded, and that we should therefore adhere to the two-year timeline we set out’.
The post also said it had introduced ‘new guardrails’ to ensure there are no ‘repeat offenders’.
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Giving more details on how that would work, the blog continued: "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.”
In response to his upcoming unbanning, Trump wrote on his own social media platform Truth Social: "FACEBOOK, which has lost billions of dollars in value since 'deplatforming' your favourite 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!"
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He added: "THANK YOU TO TRUTH SOCIAL FOR DOING SUCH AN INCREDIBLE JOB. YOUR GROWTH IS OUTSTANDING, AND FUTURE UNLIMITED!!!"
Late last year, Twitter owner Elon Musk unbanned Trump from the platform, after running a poll titled ‘Reinstate former President Trump’ that saw his millions of followers vote in favour.
However, as yet, Trump hasn’t returned to Twitter and it seems he won’t be making a come back anytime soon.
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Speaking during an event near the time of the poll, Trump told his fans: “I hear we’re getting a big vote to also go back on Twitter.
“I don’t see it because I don’t see any reason for it.”
Not only that but Trump also runs the risk of being sued if he does use any platforms other than his own.
Trump has an exclusivity agreement with Truth Social, which means he is legally required to post on the platform at least six hours before he posts anywhere else.
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And even before Musk had bought Twitter, Trump had vowed to stay off the platform, telling Fox: "I am not going on Twitter. I am going to stay on TRUTH.
"I hope Elon buys Twitter because he'll make improvements to it, and he is a good man, but I am going to be staying on TRUTH."
Topics: Facebook, Donald Trump, US News, Instagram
Claire Reid