45th President Donald Trump is preparing to make a return to Facebook and Twitter, according to a new report that broke this morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Following the protests on Capitol Hill on January 6 2021, Trump, who was then still the sitting President, was unceremoniously booted from most of the major Big Tech platforms simultaneously, including Twitter,<\/a> Meta\u2019s Facebook and Instagram, and Google\u2019s YouTube.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, Trump saw his Twitter account\u00a0restored last November<\/a>\u00a0after African-American billionaire Elon Musk purchased the platform and polled his followers on whether the former President should be allowed back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, according to a report from NBC News, the official Trump campaign is petitioning Meta to let him back onto Facebook. \u201cWe believe that the ban on President Trump\u2019s account on Facebook has dramatically distorted and inhibited the public discourse,\u201d the letter said, calling for a \u201cmeeting to discuss [his] prompt reinstatement to the platform.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Both his Facebook and Instagram accounts were initially indefinitely suspended, but a decision from Meta\u2019s Oversight Board reduced the bans down to two years.<\/a> Nick Clegg, the President of Global Affairs at Meta, suggested in September that Trump<\/a> may be allowed back, but the risk of \u201charm\u201d from his return would need to be assessed by \u201cexperts\u201d before any decision was made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An anonymous advisor to Trump told NBC News that the campaign believes that Meta will reinstate Trump to Facebook, but if not, House Republicans who now control Congressional committees, may use their power to put pressure on the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf Facebook wants to have this fight, fine, but the House is leverage, and keeping Trump off Facebook just looks political,\u201d the advisor said. If Trump is restored to Facebook, it seems likely that his Instagram account would also be restored. A spokesman for Meta said that they will \u201cannounce a decision in the coming weeks in line with the process we laid out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite Trump having already had his Twitter account reinstated, he has yet to post. Previously, the former President said that while he admired Musk, he would not be returning to the platform, saying that his Truth Social platform would \u201cmove beyond\u201d Twitter,<\/a> which he claimed was doing \u201cphenomenally well\u201d<\/a> and had better engagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet according to one Republican who spoke to NBC, \u201cit\u2019s just a question of how and when\u201d Trump comes back to Twitter. \u201cHe\u2019s been talking about it for weeks, but Trump speaks for Trump, so it\u2019s anyone\u2019s guess what he\u2019ll do or say or when.\u201d Another Trump confidant told the news site that the campaign has already workshopped plans for his first tweet back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n