Following Meta’s decision to reinstate former president Donald Trump across Facebook and Instagram, leading Democrats are slamming decision as “inexplicable.”
“How Facebook could reinstate his account, given all the additional content on Truth Social that would likely have resulted in a brand-new suspension if it were on your platform, is inexplicable,” Representative Adam Schiff (D., Calif.) and senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D., R.I..) wrote on Monday.
The end of Trump’s two-year ban was first announced by Nick Clegg, the president of global affairs at Meta, last Wednesday reversing a corporate policy that had been in place since the January 6 attack on the Capitol in 2021.
“Two years ago, we took action in what were extreme and highly unusual circumstances. We indefinitely suspended then-US President Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts following his praise for people engaged in violence at the Capitol on January 6, 2021,” Clegg outlined.
The senior Meta official explained the company’s policy new policy permitting Trump back on the platform. “Our determination is that the risk has sufficiently receded, and that we should therefore adhere to the two-year timeline we set out.”
However, the tech company’s reasoning did not satisfy Schiff or Whitehouse who both argued in December 2022 for upholding Trump’s suspension given concerns of public safety and election denialism. Based on Meta’s very own “standards for allowing Trump back on the platform, his account should not have been reinstated,” Schiff and Whitehouse argued.
The duo pointed to Trump’s activity on Truth Social, a social-media company the former president created following his expulsion from Twitter and Facebook, as indicative of the lack of change in the former president’s views or temperament.
“[W]e have every reason to believe he [Trump] will bring similar conspiratorial rhetoric back to Facebook, too,” Schiff and Whitehouse added.
The broadside comes just days after representative Schiff announced his intention to run for Dianne Feinstein’s senate seat in California next year last Thursday.
Schiff joined the ranks of representative Katie Porter (D., Calif.) seeking to challenge Feinstein despite the senator’s unwillingness to clarify her candidacy status.
“Oh, I think it’s fine. I think people should [run] if they want to run, run. For me, I just need a little bit more time,” she said.