(BBC News) Donald Trump will be allowed back on to Facebook and Instagram, after Meta announced it would be ending its two-year suspension of his accounts.
The suspension will end “in the coming weeks,” the social media giant said.
In a statement, Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, said the public “should be able to hear what their politicians are saying.”
The then-U.S. president was indefinitely suspended from Facebook and Instagram after the Capitol riot in 2021.
The firm had taken action following Trump’s “praise for people engaged in violence at the Capitol”, Clegg said.
“The suspension was an extraordinary decision taken in extraordinary circumstances,”
He said a review found that Trump’s accounts no longer represented a serious risk to public safety.
But because of Trump’s past “violations”, he would face heightened penalties for repeat offences.
Republicans have been pressing for Trump to be allowed back on Facebook as he prepares to run for the presidency again next year.
Trump posted on his own social media company Truth Social in response today (Wednesday), saying that Facebook had “lost billions” after banning “your favourite President, me.”
“Such a thing should never again happen to a sitting president, or anybody else who is not deserving of retribution!” he wrote.