Former US President
Facebook apparently wants to lift Trump’s ban
Apparently, former US President Donald Trump is to be reinstated by the meta group. photo
© Thibault Camus/AP/dpa
After the storming of the US Capitol in January 2021, the then US President was blocked from Facebook and Instagram. Now the Meta group is apparently thinking about allowing the politician back.
The platforms Facebook and Instagram want to decide “quickly” about lifting their ban on former US President Donald Trump. Apparently, the Republican politician should be reinstated. This was indicated by the Vice President of the Facebook parent company Meta, Nick Clegg, on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The decision will be announced soon.
Clegg pointed out that Trump was only banned for two years. The Internet company suspended Trump after expressing his opinion on the storming of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 and the subsequent debate about the role of the voted-out president in the riot.
Clegg argued in Davos that Meta has an obligation to also allow controversial discussions on its platforms. The Silicon Valley group had originally announced the decision for January 7th.
Democrats asked for the ban to be extended
Clegg is officially responsible for the decision at Meta. A supervisory body of the group had insisted on the limitation of the block in 2021. The former Liberal Democrat Deputy Prime Minister is Meta’s chief lobbyist. Representatives of the US Democrats had specifically asked Meta in January to extend Trump’s ban. This continues to spread anti-democratic positions.
Trump had already allowed Twitter back in November after US billionaire Elon Musk took over the social network. However, Trump remained loyal to the Truth Social platform he founded himself. He has around 4.6 million followers there.