META WORST: Trump to be reinstated on Facebook, Instagram

Donald Trump was booted off Facebook for posts that influenced his followers and led to a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol Building and legislators.

Now, his “indefinite” suspension has been reduced by Facebook parent Meta, and he’ll be welcomed back with “new guardrails” in the coming days.

Trump has griped and complained about his ouster from social media to a degree comparable to the energy he put into similar complaints about being booted out of the White House.

He even started his own poorly-performing copycat social site, where he can post whatever he wants without fear of repercussions.

Now, however, he’s running for office, his Twitter account has been reinstated (though, so far, not used), and he’s reportedly looking for a way to get out of his contract with Truth Social so he’ll be free to return to other platforms.

Once he figures that out, he’ll be free to return to virtually every platform that dumped him over the January 6th attack.

How long he’ll be able to maintain those accounts, however, remains in question.

Meta is promising that they’re putting “guardrails” in place that should prevent a similar abuse of power in the future.

“Nick Clegg, president of global affairs at Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, said Trump’s accounts will be reinstated ‘in the coming weeks’ and come with ‘new guardrails in place to deter repeat offenses’…’In the event that Mr. Trump posts further violating content, the content will be removed and he will be suspended for between one month and two years, depending on the severity of the violation,’ Clegg said on the company’s website.” NBC reported.

Meta’s oversight board further noted in a statement that they would still like the company to offer additional clarification, specifically “to define varying violation severities by public figures in the context of civil unrest.”

Earlier this month, Trump posted on TruthSocial to declare that changing its name to Meta (the website has not changed its name and is still “Facebook;” Meta is the name of the parent company) and kicking him off the platform were “two of the worst decisions in business history,” and suggested the site should reinstate him, and “go back to” the name that the site still bears.

The public response so far to Meta’s decision to reinstate Trump indicates that many may think that this is the worst business decision the company has made to date.

Time will tell whether Facebook users will exit the platform when Trump resurfaces.

Steph Bazzle covers politics and theocracy, always aiming for a world free from extremism and authoritarianism. Follow Steph on Twitter @imjustasteph.