In order to ensure that both candidates for president have equal access to its platforms, the social media giant has stated that it has made the decision to remove the barriers.
Meta, the parent company of social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, has made the decision to remove limitations that were applied on accounts belonging to former President Donald Trump. In January of 2023, Meta amended its first statement that announced the termination of Trump’s suspension on Facebook and Instagram. The statement was updated to reflect the new online status of the Republican candidate for president. Axios was the first news outlet to report on the situation. Following the attack on the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, Meta withdrew Trump from all of its platforms due to “extreme and highly unique circumstances,” as stated in the initial statement released by Meta. During the attack on the Capitol building, seven persons were killed as a result of the violence that occurred or the collateral damage that occurred as a result of the attack. In May of the following year, the Oversight Board came to the conclusion that Facebook had failed to administer an appropriate penalty when it suspended Trump’s accounts indefinitely for “severely” violating the community guidelines and standards of both Facebook and Instagram. In a video statement that was released less than three hours after the violence began, President Trump declared, “We love you.” Someone told the insurrectionists, “You are really remarkable,” and referred to them as “wonderful patriots.” Those words, along with others that were made in the aftermath of the attack on the United States Capitol, convinced the board that Trump had breached its standard, which prohibits him from glorifying or supporting individuals who engage in violent behavior on its platforms. Meta restored Trump’s accounts after a time-bound suspension with stiffer penalties for breaking its terms of service. This was a threshold that was greater than any other user on Facebook and Instagram. The suspension was in place for a period of two years. In its most recent release, Meta mentioned that the former president will be held to the same standard as everyone else. According to the statement released by Meta, “the candidates for President of the United States will soon be formally nominated,” as the party conventions are scheduled to take place in the near future, including the Republican convention that will take place the following week. In the process of evaluating our responsibilities to permit political discourse, we have come to the conclusion that the American people ought to be permitted to hear from the candidates for president on the same basis. In the aftermath of the uprising that occurred on January 6 at the Capitol, Twitter, which is now known as X, took action against President Trump for three tweets that he wrote that were seen to be promoting any kind of violent behavior. On January 6, 2021, everyone was suspended for a period of twelve hours. After concluding that additional posts also violated Twitter’s community rules, Twitter decided to completely ban him two days later. Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter, conducted an informal poll on his account the following year, asking users whether he should remove President Trump’s ban. A few days later, Musk reinstated his account because of the results of the poll.