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Welp, it looks like former President Donald Trump has been invited back to just about all of the social media platforms he was previously banned from for being the commander-in-losing-and-lying-then-lying-about-losing. Last November, Trump’s Twitter account was reinstated after it had been suspended since January 2021, you know, because sitting presidents who inspire insurrections through the spreading of political misinformation are probably violating community standards at the very least.
On Wednesday, Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, announced that Trump’s accounts will be restored on both platforms.
From the New York Times:
Meta suspended Mr. Trump from its platforms on Jan. 7, 2021, the day after hundreds of people stormed the Capitol in his name, saying his posts ran the risk of inciting more violence. That week, Mr. Trump’s accounts on other mainstream social media services, including YouTube and Twitter, were also removed.
But Meta, which critics have accused of censoring Mr. Trump and other conservative voices, said on Wednesday it had decided to reverse the bans because it had determined that the risk to public safety had “sufficiently receded” since January 2021. The company added that it would add guardrails to “deter repeat offenses” in the future.
First of all, who knew there was an expiration date on how long powerful propaganda spreaders and terror attack provokers can be deemed dangerous?
But please, tell us more about how you plan to “deter” the “repeat offenses” Trump is one bazillion percent sure to commit.
“The public should be able to hear what their politicians are saying—the good, the bad and the ugly—so that they can make informed choices at the ballot box,” said Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs. “But that does not mean there are no limits to what people can say on our platform.”
Listen: If what you’re saying is you won’t allow the ex-president to lie perpetually and recklessly and spread dangerous and easily disprovable nonsense that has the potential to cause violence—then why TF are you reinstating Trump in the first place? I mean, that’s pretty much his entire shtick.
“The Capitol community is still picking up the pieces from the Jan. 6 insurrection that Trump ignited, and now he is returning to the virtual scene of the crime,” Representative Jan Schakowsky, a chief deputy whip and a Democrat of Illinois, told the Times via email.
Exactly!
