“In assessing our responsibility to allow political expression, we believe that the American people should be able to hear from the nominees for president on the same basis,” Meta’s president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, said in a statement.
Clegg said the company has instituted “new guardrails” to deter “repeat offenses” on its platforms.
“In reaching this conclusion, we also considered these penalties were a response to extreme and extraordinary circumstances, and have not had to be deployed,” he said.
Trump celebrated the victory on his social media platform Truth Social.
“FACEBOOK, which has lost Billions of Dollars in value since ‘deplatforming’ your favorite President, me, has just announced that they are reinstating my account. Such a thing should never again happen to a sitting President, or anybody else who is not deserving of retribution!” he wrote.
According to Clegg, Meta will periodically review, through an independent oversight board, whether restricted accounts should have their permissions tightened or lifted.
In an interview with NBC News, Clegg said the company is not trying to “censor everything that everyone says in an open and free democracy.”
“We think that open and free debate on the rough and tumble of democratic debate should play out on Facebook and Instagram as much as anywhere else,” he told NBC.
Meta has been criticized by both sides of the aisle for how it handles content moderation.
