Meta to reinstate Donald Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts
Katie Paul and Sheila Dang
FILE PHOTO: Former U.S. President Donald Trump announces he will run for president in 2024 at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach
By Katie Paul and Sheila Dang
(Reuters) - Meta Platforms Inc said Wednesday it will reinstate former U.S. President Donald Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts in the coming weeks, following a two-year suspension after the deadly Capitol Hill riot on January 6, 2021.
The restoration of his accounts could provide a boost to Trump, who announced in November he will make another run for the White House in 2024. He has 34 million followers on Facebook and 23 million on Instagram, platforms that are key vehicles for political outreach and fundraising.
His Twitter account was restored in November by new owner Elon Musk, though Trump has yet to post there.
Free speech advocates say it is appropriate for the public to have access to messaging from political candidates, but critics of Meta have accused the company of lax moderating policies.
Meta said in a blog post Wednesday it has "put new guardrails in place to deter repeat offenses."
"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," wrote Nick Clegg, Meta's president of global affairs, in the blog post.
The decision, while widely expected, drew sharp rebukes from civil rights advocates. "Facebook has policies but they under-enforce them," said Laura Murphy, an attorney who led a two-year long audit of Facebook concluding in 2020. "I worry about Facebook's capacity to understand the real world harm that Trump poses: Facebook has been too slow to act."
The Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP, Free Press and other groups also expressed concern Wednesday over Facebook's ability to prevent any future attacks on the democratic process, with Trump still repeating his false claim that he won the 2020 presidential election.
Others said it was the right decision.
Jameel Jaffer, executive director at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University and a former ACLU official, defended the reinstatement. He had previously endorsed the company's decision to suspend Trump's account.
"The public has an interest in hearing directly from candidates for political office," said Jaffer. "It's better if the major social media platforms err on the side of leaving speech up, even if the speech is offensive or false, so that it can be addressed by other users and other institutions."
OTHER REACTIVATIONS?
The decision to ban Trump was a polarizing one for Meta, the world's biggest social media company, which prior to the Trump suspension had never blocked the account of a sitting head of state for violating its content rules.
The company indefinitely revoked Trump's access to his Facebook and Instagram accounts after removing two of his posts during the Capitol Hill violence, including a video in which he reiterated his false claim of widespread voter fraud during the 2020 presidential election.
It then referred the case to its independent oversight board, which ruled that the suspension was justified but its indeterminate nature was not. In response, Meta said it would revisit the suspension two years after it began.
Meta's blog post Wednesday suggested it may reactivate other suspended accounts, including those penalized for their involvement in civil unrest. The company said those reinstated accounts would be subject to more stringent review and penalties for violations.
Whether, and how, Trump will seize upon the opportunity to return to Facebook and Instagram is unclear.
Trump has not sent any new tweets since regaining his account on Twitter, saying he would prefer to stick with his own app Truth Social. But his campaign spokesman told Fox News Digital last week that being back on Facebook "will be an important tool for the 2024 campaign to reach voters."
In a post on Truth Social, Trump responded to his reinstatement on Meta apps, saying: "Such a thing should never again happen to a sitting President, or anybody else who is not deserving of retribution!" He did not indicate if or when he would begin posting on Meta platforms again.
Representative Adam Schiff, a Democrat who previously chaired the House Intelligence Committee, criticized the decision to reinstate him.
"Trump incited an insurrection," Schiff wrote on Twitter. "Giving him back access to a social media platform to spread his lies and demagoguery is dangerous."
(Reporting by Sheila Dang in Dallas and Katie Paul in Palo Alto; additional reporting by Greg Bensinger, David Shepardson, Kanishka Singh, Eva Mathews and Yuvraj Malik; Editing by Kenneth Li and Rosalba O'Brien)
71 Million Young Nigerians Have Registered to Vote in Next Month's Election
(Bloomberg) -- Young Nigerians have registered in numbers to vote in crucial presidential elections taking place in 43 days in Africa's most populous nation, a sign of intense youth interest in who leads the biggest democracy on the continent, data from the nation's election body shows.Most Read from BloombergHindenburg vs Adani: The Short Seller Taking On Asia's Richest PersonNYSE Mayhem Traced to a Staffer Who Left a Backup System RunningWe Asked ChatGPT to Make a Market-Beating ETF. Here's Wh
Minister Tyler Shandro tells hearing his family was the target of threats, harassment
Alberta's Minister of Justice Tyler Shandro told a hearing Wednesday that a tidal wave of harassment and threats against him and his family were "perpetuated" by members of the Alberta Medical Association. The minister is in the midst of a conduct hearing before the Law Society of Alberta, where he faces three complaints of unprofessional conduct that date back to his dealings with doctors and a member of the public as health minister in 2020. Tyler Shandro was called as his own witness and spen
MONTREAL — Quebec's order of nurses is rejecting a recommendation to push back the date of its next licensing exam amid an ongoing investigation into why more than half of candidates failed the last sitting. The order said today that the next exam will go ahead on March 27 as scheduled, but nursing students will be given the option to wait until the next date in September if they prefer. The commissioner who oversees access to the province's professional orders said last week that it was still t
Halifax moving commercial tax burden to business parks
Halifax's new commercial tax system will shift the burden to business parks so big-box stores pay more, but it's possible small businesses will get caught up in the change. During a budget committee meeting Wednesday, city staff gave council an update on what the new zone-based tax system with tiered rates could mean for this fiscal year, since the new rules come into place April 1. Municipal commercial taxes in three of the parks — Dartmouth Crossing, Bayers Lake and Bedford Commons — will be t
OC Transpo apologizes for confusion over storm schedule signs
Some ill-timed signage posted by OC Transpo has led to a flurry of confusion over which buses will run during messy weather, and how much snow will fall on Ottawa Wednesday evening into Thursday morning. The signs posted at bus stops — meant to remind riders that deep enough snow will mean a reduced bus schedule as part of a pilot program — didn't detail how many centimetres are needed to trigger such a severe storm schedule. According to an image posted on social media, one of the signs stated
Black criminology prof who applied to the all-white police board says it needs diversity
The relationship between police and Black communities is often "deeply problematic and tense" across North America, says Natalie Delia Deckard. And that's one of the reasons she felt compelled to apply to be on the Windsor police services board. The University of Windsor criminology professor and founding director of the Black Studies Institute was one of 48 applicants council considered for the public position it needed to fill. During an in-camera session earlier this month, council appointed
Passengers miraculously escape after bus falls into Turkey lake
In a fortunate turn of events, seven passengers aboard abus in Turkey that plunged into a lake after the driver lost controlof the vehicle were able to escape. The local governor says there wereno fatalities, with three passengers being hospitalized for non-lifethreatening injuries.
Germany apologizes for leopard jibe that upset some Africans
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Germany apologized on Thursday for using a leopard emoji in a jibe at Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Twitter that ended up offending some Africans. The German foreign ministry poked fun at Russia's top diplomat during his tour of Africa when it tweeted that he wasn't there looking for leopards, but using the trip to try and justify Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The tweet, and the leopard emoji the foreign ministry used on its official account,