‘He Is A Former President’: Top Meta Exec Explains Trump’s Facebook Reinstatement
Harold Hutchison on January 25, 2023
A Meta executive cited former President Donald Trump’s status and presidential campaign when discussing Trump’s reinstatement to Facebook and Instagram Wednesday.
“At the end of the day, we believe the American people should hear from, including on our apps and services, from those who want to – who want to lead them,” Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs and a former deputy prime minister of the United Kingdom, told “Special Report” host Bret Baier.
“He is a former president of this country, vying to be a candidate for the next presidential elections and we don’t really want to, all other things being equal, stand in the way,” Clegg continued.
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Meta announced the reinstatement of Trump, who was suspended indefinitely from Facebook and Twitter in the wake of the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol building, Wednesday. The suspension was later set at two years in June 2021.
Trump’s team requested his reinstatement on Jan. 17, saying the ban from the social media sites “dramatically distorted and inhibited the public discourse” and citing his 2024 presidential campaign. Twitter reinstated Trump in November, following an online poll by Elon Musk, who completed the acquisition of the social media site in October.
“We think it’s right to let the two-year suspension now expire if, I mean, it’s up to him and his team if he wants to use Facebook and Instagram, he’s now free to do so,” Clegg continued.
Trump’s reinstatement to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram may not immediately lead to posts, given an 18-month contract signed in December 2021 that requires him to post on Truth Social, a social media site set up by the Trump Media and Technology Group, six hours before making any other posts on social media.
A spokesperson for former President Trump referred the Daily Caller News Foundation to his post on Truth Social reacting to the reinstatement.
“FACEBOOK, which has lost Billions of Dollars in value since “deplatforming” your favorite President, me, has just announced that they are reinstating my account,” Trump posted. “Such a thing should never again happen to a sitting President, or anybody else who is not deserving of retribution!”
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