Now, just a few months before the next presidential election, Meta is rolling back restrictions it previously imposed on former President Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts.“With the party conventions taking place shortly, including the Republican convention next week, the candidates for President of the United States will soon be formally nominated,” Meta president of global affairs Nick Clegg said in a statement. “In assessing our responsibility to allow political expression, we believe that the American people should be able to hear from the nominees for President on the same basis.”Trump was removed from all of Meta’s platforms following the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.In a previous statement, Meta said that his removal “was an extraordinary decision taken in extraordinary circumstances.” Trump’s accounts were reinstated in 2023; however, they have been subject to stricter penalties than others for violating its terms of service.Axios notes that those penalties were meant to limit any public figure’s accounts during civil unrest; however, the restrictions have only been applied to Trump so far.Meta has removed those stricter penalties over concerns that a minor policy violation could potentially result in his account being suspended or limited ahead of the election.
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While the stricter penalties are going away, Meta can still choose to limit the reach of problematic posts by the former President.“All US Presidential candidates remain subject to the same Community Standards as all Facebook and Instagram users, including those policies designed to prevent hate speech and incitement to violence,” Clegg said.Going forward Meta says it will “we will review accounts subject to this protocol on a periodic basis to determine whether heightened suspension penalties for Community Standards violations remain appropriate,” a determination it will make by weighing its responsibility to “allow political expression” against our responsibility “to avoid serious risks to other human rights.”
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