January 6, 2021, was undoubtedly one of the worst days in the history of the United States, but the one bright spot that came out of it was that it resulted in Donald Trump’s banning and suspensions from Twitter and Facebook, which he’d previously used to both terrorize the nation on an hourly basis and win the 2016 election. Unfortunately, that two-year reprieve may not last much longer.
While Twitter boss Elon Musk reinstated Trump’s account back in November—thanks to the new owner’s laissez-faire approach to hate speech and history of doing terrible things—Facebook parent company Meta had suspended the ex-president for two years, after which it would review the situation. That two-year period was up on January 7, 2023, and the former guy is, not surprisingly, getting antsy.
NBC News reports that Trump’s 2024 campaign sent a letter to Meta on Tuesday in which it wrote: “We believe that the ban on President Trump’s account on Facebook has dramatically distorted and inhibited the public discourse.” It reportedly went on to talk about free speech—conservatives’ favorite topic that they don’t actually understand—and request a “meeting to discuss President Trump’s prompt reinstatement to the platform.”
The day Facebook suspended Trump’s account, CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote: “The shocking events of the last 24 hours clearly demonstrate that President Donald Trump intends to use his remaining time in office to undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power to his elected successor, Joe Biden,” adding that Trump’s “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 US and around the world.” Zuckerberg also said the company “removed these statements yesterday because we judged that their effect—and likely their intent—would be to provoke further violence.”
And while there’s no reason to believe Trump has changed in any way—and wouldn’t use Facebook to do the exact same thing should he lose in 2024—an adviser told NBC that the campaign expects Facebook will lift the two-year ban and reinstate the ex-president. (A Meta spokesperson said the company “will announce a decision in the coming weeks in line with the process we laid out.”) And if Trump isn’t let back on? You better bet his lackeys in Congress are prepared to go to battle on his behalf.
As for Trump’s return to Twitter, which is complicated by the fact that he owns a crappier version of the site called Truth Social, a source familiar with the matter told NBC News, “Trump is probably coming back to Twitter. It’s just a question of how and when.” Another said the former guy has been soliciting “input for weeks about hopping back on Twitter,” adding that “his campaign advisers have also workshopped ideas for his first tweet.” Which we assume entailed mocking up badly photoshopped images of him and asking one another, “Which sounds better: ‘Your favorite president is back’ or ‘I bet you’ve been missing your favorite president’?”
If you thought Ron DeSantis wasn’t going to wade into the ridiculous gas-stoves war, you absolutely thought wrong
Bess Levin
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