Meta announced Friday it’s rolling back heightened restrictions on former president Donald Trump’s social media accounts — an effort to give the Republican presidential contender more leeway to share content in a heated campaign season.
The social media giant said it’s loosening the more rigorous consequences for Trump if he breaks their content rules, such as those that bar hate speech, incitement to violence and voter suppression. The heightened penalties facing Trump’s accounts were introduced following his two-year suspension from Facebook and Instagram.
The move is likely to exacerbate scrutiny facing Meta as it seeks to balance its desire of showing important political speech to users against its goal of reducing dangerous rhetoric online. Meta has long been reluctant to police speech from politicians, preferring a hands-off approach that allows their words — no matter how controversial — to be left on its platforms.
“With the party conventions taking place shortly, including the Republican convention next week, the candidates for President of the United States will soon be formally nominated,” Meta Global Affairs President Nick Clegg said in a statement.
“In assessing our responsibility to allow political expression, we believe that the American people should be able to hear from the nominees for President on the same basis.”
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The heightened penalties facing Trump’s accounts were imposed in 2023 after Meta lifted the two-year ban on Trump. Meta first suspended Trump’s accounts on Jan. 7, 2021, following his praise and encouragement of rioters who stormed the Capitol in an attack that left several dead. The company then extended the suspension for two years — which was lifted last year.
Once Trump’s suspension was lifted, Meta said Trump and any other leaders whose accounts were reinstated after a suspension would face harsher penalties if they broke the company’s rules again. For instance, the company said that most new violations would trigger a one-month restriction from posting, and could for more serious violation merit another 2-year restriction.
The company also introduced a range of other potential consequences for politicians that who post things that don’t break its content rules but still pose a risk. The company said it could still limit the distribution of those posts, restrict a leader’s access to its advertising tools, remove the reshare button from contentious posts or stop them from being recommended.
Meta said Friday the company has not had to impose any more punishments against Trump’s accounts since they were reinstated. Meta added that both Biden and Trump would still be subject to the company’s rules against spreading hate speech or inciting violence.
Trump has been sharing fewer posts on Twitter, Facebook or YouTube during this election than he had previously, preferring to post his most controversial rhetoric on his own social network, Truth Social. Though he still posts videos of his rallies and some criticism of President Biden on Facebook and Instagram.
