(LifeSiteNews) — The Facebook and Instagram accounts of former president Donald Trump will soon be back online after a two-year ban, but not without some “guardrails” limiting what he can post.
Meta, the Big Tech parent company that owns Facebook and Instagram, announced its intention to reinstate Trump in a Wednesday news release.
The move comes just one week after the ex-president’s lawyers petitioned the company to lift the ban on his Facebook account. The Trump campaign’s letter to Meta, according to NBC News, argued that his ban “has dramatically distorted and inhibited the public discourse.”
In the Wednesday news release titled “Ending Suspension of Trump’s Accounts With New Guardrails to Deter Repeat Offenses,” Meta’s president for global affairs Nick Clegg said Trump’s reinstatement will occur “in the coming weeks,” after the company determined that the “serious risk to public safety that existed in January 2021 has sufficiently receded.”
Meta Platforms, which had been known as Facebook, Inc. until October 2021, banned Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts on January 7, the day after the U.S. Capitol was breached by demonstrators protesting 2020 election irregularities and the certification of electoral votes. Twitter then followed suit on January 8, though the platform reinstated his account last November under new owner Elon Musk.
However, the return of Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts comes with a couple of caveats, with Clegg writing that “new guardrails” will be “in place to deter repeat offenses.”
“Like any other Facebook or Instagram user, Mr. Trump is subject to our Community Standards,” he said. “In the event that Mr. Trump posts further violating content, the content will be removed and he will be suspended for between one month and two years, depending on the severity of the violation.”
The Big Tech giant also leaves the door open for Trump to be “shadowbanned,” a term referring to a limitation on the visibility of social media posts to other users.
According to Clegg, Meta reserves the right to “limit the distribution” of any of Trump’s content that “delegitimizes an upcoming election or is related to QAnon.” In addition, Meta could “temporarily restrict [his] access to our advertising tools” in the event of “repeated instances.”
“This step would mean that content would remain visible on Mr. Trump’s account but would not be distributed in people’s Feeds, even if they follow Mr. Trump. We may also remove the reshare button from such posts, and may stop them being recommended or run as ads,” per the news release.
In a post on his own social media platform, Truth Social, Trump said his ban “should never again happen to a sitting President, or anybody else who is not deserving of retribution!”
He also thanked Truth Social for “doing such an incredible job” and said, in all caps, “your growth is outstanding, and future unlimited.”