Donald Trump has petitioned Meta to restore his access to Facebook.
It comes as Trump is reportedly looking to shift his 2024 presidential campaign into a higher gear.
Trump was banned from Facebook more than two years ago after his followers went from his speech in D.C. to the Capitol in an unsuccessful attempt to stop certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential victory.
In a letter to Meta, Trump advisers argued that the ban “dramatically distorted and inhibited the public discourse” and should be rescinded.
Trump is spinning it to be that Meta needs him, not that he needs the platform.
In an interview with Fox News Digital, Trump said: “If they took us back, it would help them greatly, and that’s okay with me. But they need us more than we need them.”
It’s not what Trump’s campaign says. Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said that being back on Facebook “will be an important tool for the 2024 campaign to reach voters.”
Meta, the world’s biggest social media company, is set to make a controversial decision on the future of Trump’s accounts this month.
Facebook and Instagram are not the only social media platforms that Trump was kicked off. He was also kicked off of Twitter, but under new owner Elon Musk, his account has been restored.
But Trump hasn’t used Twitter yet, saying he preferred his own Truth Social platform.
Meta’s verdict stems from a self-imposed deadline: while Trump’s ban was initially indefinite, the company later pledged to revisit his accounts in January 2023, two years after the suspension began.
Trump used his Twitter account to encourage supporters to gather near the Capitol. In a speech before the attack, he urged supporters to “fight like hell”. He then used Twitter to criticize his vice-president, Mike Pence, for not stopping certification while the attack was in progress.
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