Trump May Be Allowed Back On Facebook Early Next Year
It’s possible that your Facebook page will once more be overrun with posts on Trump from your conservative cousin and other Q-pilled family members.
Donald Trump may soon be allowed back on the social media network, according to Nick Clegg, head of worldwide affairs at Meta. The business will decide as early as January 2023.
After the pro-Trump rioting on January 6 at the Capitol building, the former president was removed from the podium the previous year.
At an event in Washington, D.C., hosted by the digital news start-up Semafor, Clegg delivered his remarks. They represent the first time Facebook has even hinted at this possibility since the network was compelled to provide a schedule for the suspension by the Facebook Oversight Board.
Semafor Interview: Facebook could lift Trump’s suspension in January, Nick Clegg tells @SCClemons pic.twitter.com/3vtRhP5RUk
— Semafor (@semafor) September 22, 2022
For some time now, the potential of Trump’s return to Facebook has been known. Facebook put the metaphorical can on the back burner two years ago to give the business more time to decide.
The Trump issue was taken up by the Oversight Board, which makes recommendations about decisions made regarding content moderation on Facebook’s platform, in May 2021, and the suspension was sustained. Additionally, it demanded that Facebook make clear if Trump’s account will be permanently banned or give a timeline for when it will be unblocked. Users can examine Trump’s Facebook account as of January 7, 2021. Trump and others in his circle have not been able to log onto the account to add new stuff, though.
In June 2021, Facebook made the announcement that Trump will be suspended for a period of two years. Facebook had previously stated that removing the suspension would necessitate an evaluation of the risk to public safety and that it would keep blocking Trump’s access until that risk subsided.
At the D.C. gathering, Clegg echoed those worries, stating that Facebook “will consult to experts, consider the risk of real world harm, and act proportionally.”
If the ban is lifted in January of the next year, Trump won’t be able to post during the midterm elections but will return to the social media platform in time for his probable 2024 presidential run.
Other social media platforms have also removed Trump from their platforms since the events of January 6th. After the coup attempt, Twitter permanently banned Trump. (However, Elon Musk has stated that if he were to actually buy Twitter, he would rescind Trump’s prohibition.) In a move reminiscent of Facebook, YouTube has suspended Trump until the “risk of violence lessened.” Trump has not yet been able to get onto his YouTube account.
The former president eventually started his own conservative social network called Truth Social, where he currently has 4 million followers, as a result of the acts of these platforms. On his still-suspended Facebook profile, Trump currently has more than 34 million followers.
Trump has been sharing an increasing amount of material on Truth Social in recent months that is tied to the extreme right-wing conspiracy group QAnon. In 2020, Facebook outlawed this kind of content.
Will Facebook keep Trump’s suspension in place? Will his most recent internet behavior factor into such a choice? Or has Facebook come to the conclusion that it can no longer keep kicking the can? Clegg predicts that the answer will come soon.
Source: mashable.com