Meta lifts Trump’s Facebook and Instagram restrictions ahead of election

Meta said Friday it is removing any previously imposed penalties and restrictions on former President Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts, as the upcoming 2024 U.S. presidential election nears.

The company first took action against Trump’s social media accounts in 2021, shortly after the Jan. 6 insurrection in Washington, D.C. At the time, Meta suspended Trump’s accounts for a two-year period, after it deemed that some of the former president’s actions, such as praising the Capitol Rioters, were a potential risk for inciting more violence.

In January 2023, Meta said it would reinstate Trump on its platform, and he regained access to his accounts the following month. But Trump was still subject to remaining penalties and restrictions that could have led to his social media accounts facing long suspensions.

After Meta’s Friday announcement, though, if Trump were to violate Meta’s community guidelines, he would face a much shorter possible suspension that could last only a few days, as opposed to a lengthier suspension under the previously imposed penalties.

Meta’s president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, wrote in the Friday blog post that the original suspension and penalties “were a response to extreme and extraordinary circumstances, and have not had to be deployed.”

“With the party conventions taking place shortly, including the Republican convention next week, the candidates for President of the United States will soon be formally nominated,” Clegg wrote. “In assessing our responsibility to allow political expression, we believe that the American people should be able to hear from the nominees for President on the same basis.”

A Meta spokesperson characterized the update as “simply bringing presumptive GOP nominee Trump to parity with President Biden.”