Meta banned Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts after the Jan. 6 riots and decided to reinstate them last year. As Axios first reported on Friday, the former president appears to feel safe reposting photos of his McDonald’s order now that the social media company has also lifted restrictions on his account.
When Mehta reinstated Trump’s account, guardrails were put in place to prevent him from, you know, trying to spark another riot. With the Republican and Democratic national conventions set to take place in a few weeks and Election Day only a few months away, Mehta decided to lift the restrictions on his account because he was the Republican presidential candidate.
“In assessing our responsibility to allow political expression, we believe the American people should be able to hear from the presidential nominee on the same basis,” Mehta said in the latest update to a blog post about the status of the former president’s account. “As a result, former President Trump, as the Republican nominee, will no longer be subject to the enhanced suspension.”
Now does this mean Trump can release the latest QAnon conspiracy or pretend he knows nothing about Project 2025? Probably not, but then again, Trump puts all the real shit your uncle likes to share with you on his truth social account.
Meta’s move comes just days after Trump threatened CEO Mark Zuckerberg with jail time. Zucker has been one of Trump’s regular targets on Truth Social since Trump lost the 2020 election for whatever reason. The former president accused the now-burned-out, grappling tech billionaire of being involved in an elaborate plan to steal the election from him, fittingly dubbed the “Big Lie.” Keep in mind that in 2022, Meta made changes to its policies to allow the purchase of ads claiming the election was rigged.
