As former President Donald Trump gears up for another White House bid, he will have some new places to make his case to voters. After Twitter CEO Elon Musk reinstated his account on that platform, Meta announced that it would lift his suspension on both Facebook and Instagram.
Trump had been kicked off of these social media sites in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol Hill protests and subsequently, launched his own platform, Truth Social. Although he had indicated that he would not return to the more mainstream sites even if his accounts were reinstated, a campaign spokesperson suggested that the platforms would be helpful as the 2024 presidential campaign heats up.
Of course, many of Trump’s political foes do not want him to have access to any outlet that would amplify his vision for a second term. For his part, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) has made his opposition to reinstating Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts clear on multiple occasions.
In a letter he wrote to Meta prior to its decision to withdraw the suspension, Schiff wrote: “Trump has continued to post harmful election content on Truth Social that would likely violate Facebook’s policies, and we have every reason to believe he would bring similar conspiratorial rhetoric to Facebook.”
More recently, he teamed up with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) to denounce Meta’s “inexplicable” decision to restore Trump’s access to the accounts. The Democratic lawmakers wrote a letter demanding answers from Meta’s President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg, who confirmed in a blog post that Trump’s ban would be lifted.
Their letter began by echoing the indignation of Schiff’s previous message to Meta, going on to include a request for details about how the company plans to “uphold election integrity and not allow their platform to be used to spread conspiracy theories and election lies.”
The California Democrat seems to know something about spreading conspiracy theories after having been recently called out by none other than a CNN reporter over his misleading statements regarding Trump’s alleged collusion with Russia ahead of the 2016 election.
Democrat Adam Schiff triples down on the Russian collusion hoax. pic.twitter.com/T4HmvT1QVe
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) January 29, 2023
For his part, Trump celebrated Meta’s decision in a Truth Social post, writing: “Such a thing should never again happen to a sitting President or anybody else who is not deserving of retribution!”
