Meta will remove restrictions on Donald Trump's accounts ahead of November elections

The company did not disclose a clear timeline for when the changes would be made, but said it would do so to ensure fairness among presidential candidates.

By Misty Severi

Published: July 12, 2024 7:45pm

Facebook parent company Meta said Friday that it will roll back restrictions it placed against former President Donald Trump ahead of the 2024 presidential election this November.

The former president was originally suspended from both Instagram, and Facebook, in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol Riot. But his accounts were reinstated in January of 2023, albeit with stricter penalties and restrictions than other users experienced, a spokesman told Axios.

The company did not disclose a clear timeline for when the changes would be made, but said it would do so to ensure fairness among presidential candidates.

"In assessing our responsibility to allow political expression, we believe that the American people should be able to hear from the nominees for president on the same basis," Meta president of global affairs Nick Clegg said in a statement. "In reaching this conclusion, we also considered that [the] penalties were a response to extreme and extraordinary circumstances, and have not had to be deployed."

Meta said the penalties imposed on Trump's accounts, which included account suspensions and advertising restrictions, were not necessary because he did not violate the company's policies during his restriction period.

The company said it is maintaining its right to limit the distribution of problematic posts from Trump, or other users, even if the posts do not explicitly violate the site's rules, and that Trump's accounts are still subject to the same general guidelines as all other Meta users.

The move is a notable victory for Trump, who was also banned from X, then Twitter, in the aftermath of the January 6 riot. Although Trump was reinstated on all platforms, he still predominantly uses his social media site Truth Social to share his messages because he struck a deal with the app to post on Truth Social ahead of other networks.

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just the News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.