What timing.
On Friday, Meta quietly removed all restrictions on the Facebook and Instagram accounts of former U.S. President Donald Trump, giving Trump the opportunity to resume his full social media advertising and promotion program heading into the November election.
Trump’s Facebook and IG accounts were originally suspended by Meta in January 2021, in the wake of the Capitol Riots, and the perceived role that Trump played in inciting the violent protests.
Meta’s independent Oversight Board then called on Meta to place more definitive rules around Trump’s suspension, which saw Meta impose a two-year time frame on similar decisions in future.
And now, Meta has further confirmed that Trump’s accounts have been made available to the former President once again.
As explained by Meta:
“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. 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. As a result, former President Trump, as the nominee of the Republican Party, will no longer be subject to the heightened suspension penalties. In reaching this conclusion, we also considered that these penalties were a response to extreme and extraordinary circumstances, and have not had to be deployed. 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.”
To be clear, Meta originally announced that Trump would be allowed to return to its apps in January last year, but it’s now removing all remaining restrictions and processes designed to monitor and ensure rule compliance under that initial suspension. Meaning that Trump’s posts will now be measured in the same regard as any other user, so it’s not a major change in this respect, but more of a confirmation of Meta’s previously stated stance.
And while Trump remains linked to his own social platform Truth Social (largely due to his financial ties to the platform), his full reinstatement on Facebook, in particular, could be significant, considering the amount of money the previous Trump campaign pumped into Facebook ads.
Team Trump spent over $20 million on Facebook ads in 2019 alone, and while tweets became his primary weapon of choice for communicating with his audience, Facebook was also a crucial platform for promoting his agenda leading to his previous win.
As such, while you may not see Trump suddenly posting to Facebook and Instagram with the same cadence that he did five years back, you can expect that Trump’s team will be deploying a heap of Facebook ads.
As you can see, at this stage, most of Trump’s recent Facebook promotions are focused on his upcoming appearances, as well as calls for donations to the campaign. But in the lead up to previous elections, Trump used Facebook and IG promos to target certain groups with divisive statements, in order to spark response from voters.
This latest update from Meta may not change a heap, but it is significant in the broader scheme, and it will be worth monitoring how the Trump campaign deploys Facebook and IG promotions in the coming months.