Not Only Twitter, Donald Trump Could Soon Be Unbanned From Facebook And Instagram As Well

Trump’s social media bans followed the events of January 6, 2021, during which a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol building in an attempt to stop the ratification of the 2020 presidential election results. The former president’s social media posts were seen as a key factor in the attack on the Capitol, and Trump was given an indefinite ban from Facebook and Instagram the day after the Capitol riot took place. Twitter made a decision on the status of Trump’s account a day later on January 8 and handed the outgoing president a permanent ban.

The significance of the ban and the events leading up to it was enough to warrant a statement from Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg, who described the events as “shocking” and accused Trump of trying to use his remaining time in office to undermine the democratic process. Describing his justification for the ban, the Facebook founder said: “His decision to use his platform to condone rather than condemn the actions of his supporters at the Capitol building has rightly disturbed people in the U.S. and around the world. We removed these statements yesterday because we judged that their effect — and likely their intent — would be to provoke further violence.” 

As strongly worded as Zuckerberg’s statement was, his company actually let Trump off lighter than some of its rivals. While Twitter opted for a “permanent” ban, Meta’s ban ended up being a little bit more complex. In theory, Trump could have his accounts back two years to the day after the ban was issued, which means he could be posting again in just over two months. But things are still a little bit more complicated than that.