Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, announced Friday that it has removed the lasting restrictions on former president Donald Trump’s accounts ahead of the Republican National Convention next week.
Meta suspended Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts in the wake of the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot. While Trump was allowed to return to the platforms beginning in January 2023, he had been subject to heightened penalties for repeat offenses.
Previously, if he were to violate Meta’s policies, he could have been subjected to a suspension of up to two years.
However, with Trump set to formally become the Republican nominee for president next week, Meta announced that Trump’s accounts would no longer be subject to a different set of rules.
“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 wrote in a statement.
“In reaching this conclusion, we also considered that these penalties were a response to extreme and extraordinary circumstances, and have not had to be deployed,” he added.
All candidates “remain subject to the same Community Standards as all Facebook and Instagram users, including those policies designed to prevent hate speech and incitement to violence,” Clegg said.
Meta said it plans to periodically review accounts under similar restrictions to determine whether those additional restrictions should be removed.
Trump has used Facebook less this election cycle than in 2016 or 2020, preferring to share his thoughts with his followers on his own social-media site, Truth Social, which he launched in 2022 after being banned from Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.