82 days after Twitter CEO Elon Musk reversed the ban on Donald Trump's account, Meta followed suit and lifted the suspension of the former President's profiles on Instagram and Facebook on February 9. Trump was banned in the aftermath of the Capitol riots on January 6, 2021 after he had lost to the Democratic candidate Joe Biden in the U.S. presidential election. While Trump's accounts have been banned the longest on Meta's platforms, this record could soon be broken.
As our chart based on company communication and Statista calculations shows, Facebook and Instagram, where Donald Trump has 34 and 23 million followers as of February 10, 2023, respectively, suspended Donald Trump for 765 days. Twitter was quicker to reinstate the accounts of the former president, taking only 682 days and a poll by CEO Elon Musk to do so. The decision was enacted without consulting the platform's Trust and Safety Council which was disbanded by Musk in December.
While Meta still has similar programs, it nevertheless lifted its ban as well. As President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg outlined in a blog post, "guardrails" were put in place to prevent Trump from inciting his followers to violence like he allegedly did on January 6. "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", said Clegg. According to the memo, the same guardrails will be applied to any account of a public figure being reinstated after a suspension related to civil unrest. Alphabet, which runs YouTube, hasn't yet decided when and under what circumstances to reinstate the former president's account.
