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DailyExpertNews
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Former President Trump’s campaign sent a letter Tuesday to Facebook’s parent company, Meta, requesting that his Facebook account be unblocked, a source familiar with the letter told DailyExpertNews.
NBC first broke the news.
Trump’s Facebook and Twitter accounts were blocked following the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Facebook initially said the ban on Trump would be indefinite. But after a public consultation and consultation with experts, the company announced in June 2021 that Trump’s ban would be reviewed in January 2023, two years after the original decision.
DailyExpertNews reported last week that the decision to allow former President Donald Trump back on Facebook and Instagram is being discussed by a specially formed internal working group at the company, a person familiar with the deliberations said.
Meta spokesperson Andy Stone told DailyExpertNews the decision will be announced in the coming weeks. A Trump adviser said restoring the former president’s Facebook account would make it easier for the campaign to do outreach.
The letter, signed by Trump’s attorney, focused on free speech and requested a meeting with Meta to discuss reinstatement.
“Donald J. Trump is a declared candidate for President of the United States,” the letter, obtained by DailyExpertNews, said. “We believe that the ban on President Trump’s account on Facebook has dramatically distorted and hampered public discourse.”
Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill sent a letter to Meta last month urging the company to keep Trump off its platforms, arguing that Trump continues to attack American democracy by repeating lies about the 2020 election. Republicans, free speech advocates and others argue that enforcing the ban is an unauthorized act of censorship and could put Trump at a disadvantage as the 2024 nominee.
A current Trump adviser said the former president never used Facebook the way he used Twitter, which became his primary medium for communicating with his political base as president before being removed from the platform in the wake of the attack. 6 January. Still, this person said, the Trump campaign would jump at the chance to use his likeness again in its Facebook ads.
“It’s the primary means of raising money and reaching many people in a compelling audience,” said the consultant.
The process Meta goes through — publishing detailed messages and policy documents that transparently outline how it plans to make the high-stakes decision — is in stark contrast to what’s happening on Twitter.
Twitter CEO Elon Musk reinstated Trump last November, but the former president has yet to tweet. Trump aides have discussed what a return to Twitter would look like, including how to “maximize” his first tweet.
– DailyExpertNews’s Donie O’Sullivan contributed to this report