Meta declared that there would be “new guardrails” imposed on account of the former president

Over two years passed until Meta was ready to welcome back former President Donald Trump onto Facebook and Instagram. The decision has been finally made, with the announcement of his reinstated accounts in “coming weeks” but there will be “new guardrails in place to deter repeat offenses.”

After the Trump campaign pushed for its former leader to have his Facebook privileges reinstated before the start of the presidential primaries, a decision was finally made.

Following the attack on the US Capitol in January 2021, Trump was removed from Facebook after acknowledging those responsible. Meta’s management of this banning process sparked a great deal of criticism; including by its own Oversight Board which claimed that they had not followed their own regulations and were shying away from “their duties”. The board further expressed their sentiments upon deciding to uphold his suspension, declaring it as “indefinite”.

Meta later amended the suspension period to a minimum of two years but also confirmed that President Trump would eventually be reinstalled on Facebook. Nick Clegg, Meta’s leading policy executive at the time, declared that if Donald Trump breaches their policies in the future he will be “subject to new enhanced penalties” compared with pre-existing regulations.

Nick Clegg, chief of Global Affairs at Meta, announced that if any public figures who have previously been suspended due to civil unrest commit similar offenses in the future they will face suspensions lasting no less than a month. He added Meta has made it their priority to reduce the impact of Trump’s posts if they are “to the sort of risk that materialized on January 6th, such as content that delegitimizes an upcoming election or is related to QAnon.”

Although it is unlikely for Meta to completely eliminate those posts, the firm has contemplated getting rid of the share button and forbidding them from its promotion and referrals systems.

Clegg further confirmed that the organization’s debatable “newsworthiness” standards may still apply to Trump. Clegg wrote, “In the event that Mr. Trump posts content that violates the letter of the Community Standards but, under our newsworthy content policy, we assess there is a public interest in knowing that Mr. Trump made the statement that outweighs any potential harm, we may similarly opt to restrict the distribution of such posts but leave them visible on Mr. Trump’s account.”