Trump may get FB, Instagram accounts back next year: Meta

At an event held in Washington by news organization Semafor, Meta's president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, said the company was contemplating whether Trump’s social media accounts on Facebook and Instagram should be restored in 2023, adding that it was a decision that he would "oversee and [I] drive”.

The decision will be finalized by Clegg after consulting Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook board of directors, and outside experts. “It’s not a capricious decision,” he said. “We will look at the signals related to real-world harm to make a decision whether at the two-year point – which is early January next year – whether Trump gets reinstated to the platform.”

Twitter banned Trump permanently, and Meta suspended Trump’s accounts for two years, after the January 6, 2021, Capitol riots during which Trump abused his social media accounts to praise, mobilize, and instigate the violence. Facebook's oversight board sustained a temporary ban in May 2021, which consisted of a group of academics and former politicians functioning independently of Facebook’s corporate leadership.

The board suggested reconvening in six months to decide whether to make the ban permanent, with Clegg adding that this will be made by January 7, 2023. Clegg, who once served as Britain’s deputy prime minister and joined Facebook as VP for global affairs and communications in 2018, was promoted to the top company policy executive role in February.

Clegg has also witnessed a number of scandals during his years at the company, such as the controversy of its policies during the 2016 US presidential election and the revelations made by whistleblower Frances Haugen.

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