Menlo, CA. (SONNA) – The big tech company, Meta, has finally ended two years of restrictions that have closed former President Trump’s accounts on Facebook and Instagram.
In a press release issued on Meta’s website on Wednesday, it stated that it would allow Trump to return to the platform “in the coming weeks” and referred to the suspension as “an extraordinary decision under extraordinary circumstances”.
Nick Clegg, Meta’s President of International Affairs, stated in the release that “social media is based on the belief that open discussion and the free expression of ideas are important values, especially at a time when they are at risk in many parts of the world.”
The suspension was originally put into effect on January 7, 2021, a day after Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol in an attempt to disrupt the 2020 presidential election, in which Democrat Joe Biden was declared the winner.
In Wednesday’s decision, Meta stated that it had assessed whether the serious threat to public safety that existed in January 2021 has sufficiently decreased and determined that it had.
However, Meta also announced that it would introduce ‘new safeguards to prevent repeated offences’ including “enhanced penalties” with additional fines that can last anywhere from one month to two years. They also promised to limit the distribution of posts that may contribute to “the kind of danger that happened on January 6,” referring to the events of the attack on the Capitol.
It’s worth noting that Trump founded his own social media company known as ‘Truth Social’ (https://truthsocial.com), which was officially announced on October 20, 2021, after being spun off from Meta and other social media companies.
Source: Meta
