Donald Trump could return to Facebook by the end of January: report
Facebook’s parent company will soon announce a decision on whether to reinstate former President Donald Trump’s account on the platform, according to a Sunday report.
Meta will announce whether Trump will regain access to his Facebook and Instagram accounts later in January, pushing back a previous deadline of January 7, the Financial Times reported. Trump has been banned from both platforms since the aftermath of his supporters storming the U.S. Capitol in January 2021.
Meta’s president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, has organized a team to consider Trump’s reinstatement, according to FT. Clegg previously indicated in October that the company was strongly considering an end to the ban.
‘We believe that any private company–and this is really regardless of one’s personal views about Donald Trump–should tread with great thoughtfulness when seeking to, basically, silence political voices,’ he said at the time.
Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Facebook’s board first chose to uphold a two-year ban on Trump’s account in June 2021, setting the potential expiration date at January 7, 2023.
Trump in November regained access to his Twitter account after billionaire Elon Musk purchased the platform. Trump has yet to use his account, however, stating that he intends to stay exclusively on his Truth Social platform, where his following is a fraction of the one he has on Twitter.
‘I am not going on Twitter, I am going to stay on TRUTH,’ Trump told Fox News last year months prior to Elon’s purchase of the company. ‘I hope Elon buys Twitter because he’ll make improvements to it and he is a good man, but I am going to be staying on TRUTH.’
Musk has unveiled a trove of internal Twitter documents detailing the company’s communications surrounding its decision to ban Trump after the Capitol riots.
Trump’s Facebook account has roughly 34 million followers. His Instagram account has 23.3 million followers. His last post on Facebook was on January 6, 2021.
‘I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order – respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you!’ it read.