Parent company of Facebook and Instagram, Meta announced this Wednesday (25) that it will restore former US President Donald Trump’s social media accounts soon.
The Republican was banned from the networks about two years ago after spreading misinformation online and for inciting violence after the invasion of the Capitol, the seat of the US Legislature, on January 6, 2021.
Still in the statement, however, Mark Zuckerberg’s company says it will restore Trump’s accounts with “new protections to prevent recurrence”. Details of the changes are not given.
Nick Clegg, Director of Global Affairs at Meta, justified the measure by stating that, in the experts’ assessment, the risk to public safety, once latent with Trump’s online presence, has diminished. “The public must be able to know what politicians are saying – whether that’s good or bad – so they can make informed choices at the ballot box.”
“This, however, does not mean that there are no limits to what people can say on the platform. When there is a clear risk of harm, something really significant for Meta to decide to intervene in the public debate, we will act”, continued the executive .
At the end of last year, a similar movement was adopted by Twitter, now under the auspices of Elon Musk. The billionaire announced that he would allow Trump to have a profile on the platform again, but this has not yet materialized. Months earlier, Trump said he would only join his own network, Truth Social.
Meta’s announcement comes amid a heated discourse about the extent to which the platforms’ right to intervene in freedom of expression goes, and also fits into the American political context, months after Trump announced that he will run once again for the White House in the elections. from 2024.
It is uncertain whether the former president, who displeases some of his supporters, would manage to be chosen in the Republican Party primaries. One of its main potential competitors is the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, re-elected in the midterms, the mid-term elections, with a significant margin.
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