Executives of Facebook claim they are “enabling” the Facebook user with the most followers ever to return to the platform, a move they are marketing as bold and kind.
“Facebook parent Meta will reinstate former President Donald Trump after keeping him off the platform for two years, the company announced Wednesday,” The Daily Mail reported, adding:
‘As a general rule, we don’t want to get in the way of open, public and democratic debate on Meta’s platforms – especially in the context of elections in democratic societies like the United States,’ Nick Clegg, the company’s president of global affairs, wrote in a blog post on the move.
‘The public should be able to hear what their politicians are saying – the good, the bad and the ugly – so that they can make informed choices at the ballot box,’ he wrote.
It is unclear what has changed since Facebook banned a lawfully elected and sitting president, but something has. It may be the result of the tremendous layoffs Tech is suffering.
The decision was made after Twitter CEO Elon Musk removed the site’s ban on President Trump, which had been in place since the events on January 6 at the US Capitol.
Trump has not yet posted on Twitter.
According to DM, granting Trump access to his accounts might affect the 2024 presidential campaign. Trump has extensive followings across social media but has been posting on his own Truth Social site – and he has not recanted his repeated claims of a’stolen’ election, despite a slew of lawsuits filed by his supporters being thrown out of court and Congress meeting to count the votes certified by states before and after the Capitol riot.
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Google all banned Trump so that he could not report on the terrible 2020 election, which persuaded the majority of Americans that something is seriously wrong with American elections.
“Facebook doesn’t fact check the claims by political candidates, and competitor Twitter has been slashing moderation staff amid firings and purges instituted by Musk,” DM reported, hinting again at the competition between the two platforms to retain customers.
‘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,’ according to the company.
The Tech ‘oligarchs continue to wield the threat of big tech censorship, however:
Former U.K. deputy prime minister Nick Clegg stated that the decision ‘does not mean there are no limits to what people can say on our platform.’
‘When there is a clear risk of real world harm — a deliberately high bar for Meta to intervene in public discourse — we act,’ he wrote.
More on this story via The Republic Brief:
“The suspensions, although deemed allowable by private companies who control their own platforms, helped prompt a backlash against restrictions on speech. House Republicans are already preparing to probe efforts to suppress information about a report about Hunter Biden’s laptop online,” Daily Mail reported, covering for Big Tech’s power grabs. CONTINUE READING…