Donald Trump Banned From Facebook And Instagram For Years
Donald Trump had his banning on Facebook and Instagram upheld and it will be like that for at least the next couple of years.
This article is more than 2 years old
Donald Trump isn’t necessarily having the post-Presidency he likely pictured after leaving office back in January. Following his election loss in November, it was a tumultuous few months before finally exiting the White House. Part of his public persona for many years had been through the use of social media, but that’s come to a grinding halt. And it isn’t set to change anytime soon with Facebook and Instagram announcing that he was going to stay banned on the platforms until at least 2023.
The Donald Trump ban on Facebook and Instagram will be for two years total and he’s eligible to return to both in January of 2023. This announcement came from Facebook’s About Page blog and was written by the Vice President of Global Affairs, Nick Clegg. He was writing in response to the Facebook Oversight Board meeting to discuss the original suspension of the ex-President. While it appears they agreed with the decision to remove him from the platform, it was concluded that the indefinite nature of the timeline was an untenable position. They concluded that a two-year ban was more warranted considering the circumstances. This still represents the harshest possible penalty.
This post regarding the timeline of the Donald Trump Facebook and Instagram bans also included a new outline of penalty severity for public figures on the platform. They used a gradient color system ranging from yellow to red, one month up to two years. Apparently this meter was meant as a timeline to determine if the public official was causing an imminent or ongoing public safety concern with their posting. Clegg said in his post that after the two year timeline the Oversight Board would then convene to reevaluate if there was still a threat.
The banning of Donald Trump from Facebook and Twitter stems from the ex-President’s rhetoric and messaging following the election and leading into the events of January 6th at the Capitol Building in Washington, DC. It was on this day that Facebook originally blocked his account and said it would remain in that state until at least Donald Trump had left office. This latest decision obviously pushes that timeline well into the future.
And Facebook and Instagram aren’t the only social media outlets to ban Donald Trump. He’s also had his Twitter account permanently suspended as well, all of which occurred right around the same time. Considering these were the major messaging arms around the former President, there’s been some minimizing of him being able to maintain the same messaging reach as during his Presidency and the time leading up until it as well. There was an attempt to start a blog, but that was taken down in the first 30 days of its existence.
What the future holds remains to be seen for Donald Trump. He still has massive reach on name alone and, of course, will remain a part of the political discourse for time to come. He is likely to continue speaking to his audience in a variety of ways. But it won’t be happening on social media at all, at least for the next couple of years and maybe longer.
