James Stone 
Facebook parent Meta said Wednesday, January 25th, 2023 that it would restore former President Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts in the coming weeks, a little more than two years after suspending him following the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill attack.
Meta says it will restore Donald Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts within weeks. He had been banned from the platforms after the January 6 insurrection. https://t.co/3oRyZ1vTc9
— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) January 25, 2023
“Our determination is that the risk [to public safety] has receded sufficiently,” said meta-president of global affairs Nick Clegg in a blog post. “As such, we will restore Mr. Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts in the coming weeks. However, we are doing so with new safeguards in place to deter repeat offenses.
In Facebook’s high-stakes debate to reinstate Trump after a two-year ban
With his Facebook and Instagram account reactivated, Trump will once again have access to huge and powerful communication and fundraising platforms just as he accelerates his third bid for the White House.
The decision, which follows a similar move by Twitter, could also further alter the landscape of how a long list of smaller online platforms handles Trump’s accounts.
It was not immediately clear whether Trump would take the opportunity to return to Meta platforms. Trump’s representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a post on his own platform, Truth Social, Trump acknowledged Meta’s decision to rescind the suspension of his account and said that “something like this should never happen to a sitting president again, or anyone else who doesn’t deserve retribution.”
Twitter restored Trump’s account in November after it was taken over by billionaire Elon Musk, but the former president has yet to resume his tweets, choosing instead to stay on Truth Social.
But Trump’s campaign earlier this month sent a letter to Meta asking the company to unblock his Facebook account, a source close to the letter told CNN, making his return more likely. While Twitter has always been Trump’s preferred platform, he has a massive reach on Facebook and Instagram – 34 million followers and 23 million followers, respectively, before his reinstatement. Previous Trump campaigns have praised the effectiveness of Facebook’s targeted advertising tools and spent millions running ads on Facebook.
