Meta lifts special restrictions on Trump's accounts ahead of 2024 Elections

In a recent announcement, Meta has revealed that former President Donald Trump will no longer be subject to heightened suspension penalties on Facebook and Instagram. This move comes as part of Meta’s commitment to ensure equal treatment of all presidential nominees on its platforms in the run-up to the 2024 elections.

In a blog post, Meta stated, "Today we are making a change to the updated protocol we announced in January 2023. To ensure people can hear from political candidates on our platforms, we will review accounts subject to this protocol on a periodic basis to determine whether heightened suspension penalties for Community Standards violations remain appropriate.”

Meta imposed stricter penalties on Trump’s accounts in January 2023 as conditions to get his accounts reinstated. If you don’t remember, Meta banned Trump following the January 6 violence. Under the heightened penalties, the former president would be banned for up to two years if he violated community standards.

With the recent update, Meta has decided that the Republican Party's nominee will be subject to the same penalties as any other user. According to the standard Facebook guidelines, any user violating Facebook’s Community Standards first receives a warning.

Further violations lead to increasing restrictions, including temporary bans from specific posting features, a full-day ban after seven violations, and a month-long ban after ten strikes.

Meta's decision arrives just ahead of the upcoming party conventions, with the Republican convention scheduled for next week. The company emphasized its belief that "the American people should be able to hear from the nominees for President on the same basis."

However, Meta has made it clear that if Trump doesn’t follow the guidelines including policies designed to prevent hate speech and incitement to violence, action will be taken.

"We are highlighting these rules today because we anticipate that should Mr. Trump choose to resume activity on our platforms, many people will call for us to take action against his account and the content he posts, while many others will be upset if he is suspended again, or if some of his content is not distributed on our platforms," Meta wrote.