Donald Trump’s time in the West Wing has been a rather profound departure from the status quo of our nation’s capital, and rightly so, as this was precisely the reason that his brand of conservatism rose to prominence as swiftly and unshakably as it has.
But not every twist to the tale was a revelation about how our nation could and should operate. In fact, Trump’s rather unconventional approach to the whole thing led to some rather harsh and unprecedented reactions from the establishment in DC, as well as from the social media barons of Silicon Valley.
But now, as The Don continues his campaign for reelection, some within the larger media picture are coming to realize that they can’t possibly maintain their current suspensions of Trump’s accounts, as this would be seen as election interference of the highest order.
This has led to a major decision by 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,” said Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs and the U.K.’s former deputy prime minister, in a blog post announcing the decision.
“But that does not mean there are no limits to what people can say on our platform. When there is a clear risk of real world harm — a deliberately high bar for Meta to intervene in public discourse — we act,” he said.
Meta did put some guardrails in place.
Meta said Trump could face new penalties if he repeatedly breaks Facebook’s rules, including having his content removed and another suspension of varying length depending on the severity of the violation, according to the blog post. The company has also updated its protocol for repeat offenses from other public figures whose accounts have been reinstated following suspensions related to civil unrest.
Trump had previously found himself reinstated on Twitter, although he has publicly suggested that he won’t be trading in his account on Truth Social to refocus on Twitter.
