The American technology company Meta announced this Wednesday that in the coming weeks it will restore the accounts of former President Donald Trump on Facebook and Instagram, suspended after the assault on the Capitol in 2021 by a mob of his followers.
In a statement, the company Meta explained that it suspended Donald Trump’s accounts two years ago due to “extreme and highly unusual circumstances,” but he qualified that the public “must be able to listen to what their politicians say” in order to “make informed decisions at the polls.”
Meta indicates that it has included “guardrails” or limits in its updated policy, and that Trump’s accounts are being reinstated after “suspensions related to civil protests”, so if they publish content that violates their rules they could be suspended again between a month and two years.
In addition, Meta warned that it will target content capable of creating a “risk” similar to the one that occurred before the assault -that delegitimizes an election or refers to the conspiracy group QAnon, cites the note-, in which case “could limit distribution” or restrict access to tools.
The company indefinitely suspended Trump from Facebook and Instagram after the then-president applauded violent supporters of the January 6, 2021 assault, but later reduced that suspension to two years after referring the matter to its oversight committee.
In the note, Meta says that it has concluded that the risks present around the assault “have diminished enough” to restore the accounts once the ban has been fulfilled, but acknowledges that there is an “important debate” about the responsibility of social networks. regarding the content they host.
“We believe it is as necessary as possible to draw a line between content that is harmful and should be removed, and content that, however tacky or inaccurate, is part of the roughness of life in a free society.” , explains the company.
Trump reacted to the announcement through his own platform, Truth Social, in a message in which he opined that Facebook has lost money after suspending its accounts and claimed that in the future no active president or person “who does not deserve punishment” should go through the same thing.
After the assault on the Capitol, Trump’s Twitter account was also suspended, the social network he used the most and in which he was most followed, and that in November he reinstated the former president under the direction of his new owner, the magnate Elon Musk, although he replied that he was not interested in returning.
However, Trump’s apparent refusals to resume his old accounts contrast with reports from Rolling Stone magazine that suggest that he plans to end his exclusivity agreement with Truth Social -which he should renew in June- and return to Twitter for the campaign. election of 2024.