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Meta has decided to lift restrictions on Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts, even as the Republican presidential candidate has escalated his rhetoric against its chief executive Mark Zuckerberg.
The social media company said in a post on Friday that Trump would “no longer be subject to the heightened suspension penalties” as it believes “that the American people should be able to hear from the nominees for president on the same basis”.
Trump used social media as a megaphone to secure the 2016 presidency and throughout his time in the White House. However, he had his Meta accounts frozen for two years from early 2021, following his claims that the 2020 election was rigged and his praise of a group of his supporters who stormed the US Capitol on January 6 2021.
In January 2023, Meta handed the former president back his accounts, but with extra guardrails to deter any repeat offences. For example, if he posted further rule-breaking content, he risked suspension for up to two years.
Removing those guardrails on Friday, Meta said it had “considered that these penalties were a response to extreme and extraordinary circumstances”, adding that they had not needed to be deployed.
The update, which was first reported by Axios, comes several days after Trump warned on Truth Social, his rival social platform, that if elected president he would “pursue Election Fraudsters at levels never seen before, and they will be sent to prison for long periods of time”.
In an apparent reference to Meta chief executive Zuckerberg, he added: “We already know who you are. DON’T DO IT! ZUCKERBUCKS, be careful!” Meta declined to comment on the post.
Trump and his supporters have long accused social media groups of deliberately silencing conservative voices through their moderation policies around election integrity and misinformation.
As part of his campaigning, Trump has vowed to dismantle what he labels a “censorship cartel” of social media platforms, academics and certain government agencies if he wins November’s election.
Meta said on Friday that all US presidential candidates would remain subject to its policies designed to prevent hate speech and incitement to violence.
While Trump has mainly used Truth Social as his platform of choice, he has begun posting regularly on Facebook and Instagram since his suspension was lifted, and last month signed up to rival platform TikTok, owned by Chinese parent ByteDance. He has only posted on rival platform X once, however.
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