Former President Donald Trump formally announced his return to Facebook on Friday, posting on the tech platform for the first time since his personal account was suspended more than two years ago.
“I’M BACK!” Trump wrote on his official page, more than a month after Facebook parent company Meta restored his access to Facebook and Instagram in February. However, Trump had not posted anything up until now.
Trump’s post included a short video of his remarks after winning the 2016 presidential election. The clip then fades to a “Trump Make America Great Again 2024” screen.
“Sorry to keep you waiting. Complicated business,” the former commander-in-chief said in the 12-second clip.
Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube, meanwhile, restored Trump’s channel this week after two years of restrictions, a spokesperson confirmed to The Epoch Times on March 17.
The streaming service suspended Trump’s channel for similar reasons as Meta, saying it had broken its rules by broadcasting content that encouraged violence following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach
The 76-year-old Republican—who is running for president again—posted the same 12-second clip on his official YouTube channel on Friday, the same day the streaming service welcomed him back.
Facebook initially banned Trump indefinitely after the Jan. 6, 2021, upheaval, but the tech platform later changed it to a two-year suspension.
Meta said in a statement in late January that Trump’s personal pages would be reinstated in February, but it stressed that it would institute heightened penalties of a suspension between one month and two years if the former president violates the firm’s rules.
‘Grave Mistake’
Twitter, which also banned Trump following the Capitol breach, reinstated the former president’s account in November last year after more than 15 million Twitter users voted in an online poll.
However, Trump has yet to post on the platform. On Feb. 20, he acknowledged that many of his followers have been waiting for him to return to both Twitter and Facebook after two years of being banned from the sites, but he said that he prefers to use his own Truth Social platform instead.
“They want me back so badly on Twitter,” the 45th president said. “They want me back on Google. They want us back badly on Facebook.”
Since the start of his social media site, TruthSocial.com, Trump has extensively used that medium for conveying his messages to the American people, despite Twitter having reinstated his account.
Trump has nearly five million followers on the newly-found platform, which was created in October 2021 by U.S. media and tech company, Trump Media & Technology Group.
Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter, said last year that the ban targeting Trump’s account was a “mistake” and “morally wrong.” The ban, Musk said, actually “alienated a large part of the country and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice.”
“I’m fine with Trump not tweeting. The important thing is that Twitter correct a grave mistake in banning his account, despite no violation of the law or terms of service,” Musk said on Twitter in November 2022. “Deplatforming a sitting President undermined public trust in Twitter for half of America,” he said.
From NTD News
