On Thursday, Meta announced they have reinstated President Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts.
Meta said that Trump no longer posed “a serious risk to public safety.”
Andy Stone, policy communications director at Meta, confirmed the news to NBC News.
NBC News reported:
Former President Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts have been reinstated, a company spokesperson said Thursday.
The reinstatement had been expected after Nick Clegg, Facebook’s president of global affairs, announced in late January that the suspension would be lifted.
Andy Stone, policy communications director at Meta, confirmed the news to NBC News.
Facebook first suspended Trump’s accounts in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack, initially as an indefinite ban that included the last two weeks of his presidency. The ban was then formally extended for two years.
NBC News reported in January that the company, which is now called Meta and includes Facebook, Instagram and other platforms including WhatsApp, had decided to reinstate Trump’s accounts while also including “new guardrails” meant to provide clear rules “to deter repeat offenses.”
More from FOX News:
The Facebook and Instagram pages belonging to former President Donald Trump have been restored Thursday.
Meta, who also owns and operates Facebook and Instagram, announced last month via a blog post last month that it would be ending Trump’s suspension on both social media platforms “in the coming weeks.”
Nick Clegg, president of global affairs at Meta, said at the time that the company determined Trump is no longer a “serious risk to public safety” and they had “guardrails” in place for his return.
The suspension was initially instated following the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, when the platform said it would be booting Trump “indefinitely” for his alleged involvement.
The decision to remove Trump from the platforms drew backlash across the political spectrum and was the first time a sitting president was barred from Facebook. At the time, Trump was also banned from Twitter, YouTube and Snapchat.
Twitter has restored Trump’s account, but the former president has not posted from the platform since his suspension.
