Former President Donald J. Trump will be reinstated on Meta after being banned for just over two years.
A year after the 45th President was excommunicated from social media, he launched his own social media platform Truth Social— which resembles how Twitter functions. Since creating the app, Trump gained 4.86 million followers and posted nearly every day, multiple times a day.
Elon Musk gave Trump his Twitter account back at the end of 2022, and he has yet to post. Trump’s campaign petitioned Meta to unblock his accounts, as the January 6 attack on the Capitol occurred over two years ago and the ban was no longer serving a “purpose.”
“We believe that the ban on President Trump’s account on Facebook has dramatically distorted and inhibited the public discourse,” wrote Trump’s campaign in its letter to Meta last Tuesday, according to NBC News. Contrary to popular belief, Trump didn’t lash out and threaten a lawsuit against Meta.
He simply petitioned Meta for a “meeting to discuss [his] prompt reinstatement to the platform.”
The former president’s accounts will be available for use “in the coming weeks” according to Nick Clegg, president of global affairs at Facebook’s parent company Meta. “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. But that does not mean there are no limits to what people can say on our platform,” Clegg added.
Social media has truly become the voice of politicians within the past decade. And Donald Trump made that evident.
Trump’s ban raised two questions: 1) Does the public have a legitimate interest in knowing the speech of Trump? 2) Who wasn’t being banned?
On the first count, a stance which Meta’s executives concur with, the public does have a legitimate reason to concern themselves with Trump’s speech. As a presidential candidate, someone who may very well be president again, the public ought to concern themselves with whatever statements of policy Trump makes to make an informed decision come 2024.
Withholding this information, only allowing it to be heard through filters, acts as a tremendous disservice to the American public.
Now, simply being important politically does not grant you the right to be heard or seen on a private company’s app. Notwithstanding criticisms that social media platforms engage in censorship and biased rulemaking/enforcement, there are limits everyone can reach on private platforms to warrant expulsion.
For instance, in Trump’s absence Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is allowed to keep his Twitter account, where he has previously called for genocide. If Twitter wishes to act as a moral arbiter, then perhaps it should do so consistently instead of when it is merely politically expedient – lest it wish to be governed more closely.
It may be the principled free speech position to welcome Trump, but it is necessary to eagerly await his speech.
What will Trump’s first Tweet or Facebook/Instagram post be? Touting the successes of his administration? Taking shots at Biden or Harris? Will it be a slap in the face to big tech?
Or will it be something more extreme, like verbal attacks on politicians, even like-minded politicians, which will only hurt his chances of getting elected, much less nominated, in the 2024 presidential election— his attacks are notorious.
Whatever the future holds in store for the former president, he will earn it by the yoke of his own brow – by the sharpness of his tongue. Depriving him of outlets doesn’t level the playing field, it plays into his narrative.
