Washington.
Former US President Donald Trump is allowed to return to the Internet platforms Facebook and Instagram. First with reservations.
It was an unprecedented digital impeachment process: because Donald Trump “wants to undermine the peaceful and lawful transfer of power to his elected successor, Joe Biden.” Company boss Mark Zuckerberg personally wrote immediately after the storming of the Capitol in Washington in January 2021, Facebook imposed a speaking ban on the then President of the United States before the end of his term in office.
Two years later, the 76-year-old, who is here most recently almost 35 million subscribers back to the platform used by around three billion people worldwide every month.
The ban will be lifted “in the coming weeks”. The danger to public safety is no longer given, explained Facebook Vice Nick Clegg. This also applies to the Instagram channel belonging to Zuckerberg’s meta group, where Trump recently had 25 million followers.
Trump’s probation comes through the Georgia judiciary
the former British Deputy Prime Minister immediately sent a warning, knowing how controversial the decision would be.
Also interesting: Donald Trump sentenced to a large fine
Should Trump, who, according to the Washington Post, demonstrably spread well over 30,000 untruths and lies during his term of office (2017 to 2021), again “post illegal content”, the Republican presidential candidate for 2024 was threatened again, depending on the severity of the violation Bans “between one month and two years”.
Clegg didn’t detail what Trump would have to say on Facebook to get the plug pulled again. However, a first test could soon arise. All indications are that Trump in the state of Georgia soon face criminal charges of attempted election interference.
The responsible Prosecutor Fani Willis Among other things, Trump accuses Trump of unlawfully urging election officials to retrospectively overturn Joe Biden’s narrow victory in the November 2020 election. A phone call published umpteen times in which Trump asked Brad Raffensperger, the then election chief, to organize the around 12,000 votes needed to win against Biden serves as evidence.
If Trump is indicted, do the math Analysts in US media with “the sharpest rhetorical artillery and possibly even hidden calls for violence by the ex-president against an allegedly hostile judiciary”.
Most recently, Trump had repeatedly portrayed himself as the victim of a “deep state” in which Democrats infiltrated institutions like the Federal Police FBI being misused for political stooge services against him. The FBI denies the allegations.
Trump has been allowed to tweet again since November – but he doesn’t
After the decision of Facebook remains Trump until further notice, only access to the video channel YouTube, which belongs to Google, is denied.
Twitter boss Elon Musk Trump had already unlocked the way to his 89 million followers there last November.
Also read: Tesla factory – IG Metall has no contact with Elon Musk
Because he has exclusive contracts with his own communication portal “Truth Social” binding, where Trump only serves 4.3 million customers with his “truths” about current events, but the New York businessman has so far refrained from doing so. According to reports, Trump wants to use the Twitter megaphone again as soon as possible – he reached simply decidedly more people. According to a campaign employee, Facebook is particularly important to him because many donations can be collected via the portal.
Both Facebook and Twitter faced mixed reactions to Trump’s digital muzzle two years ago. On the one hand, the ban was applied to many – apart from Trump hardcore fans – welcomes. Coupled with the hope that fewer Trump posts will detoxify the digital space and flatten excitation curves. On the other hand, the omnipotence of the social media giants was castigated, who suddenly decide, without any legal basis, who is allowed to say something and who is not. Tenor of the critics of the ban: Those who deny political leaders the unhindered word are laying the ax on a functioning constitutional democracy.
Civil rights groups expect more Trump lies
Trump himself reacted as expected to his readmission. Since he was unfairly deprived of his platform on Facebook, the company has lost billions, he claimed in a first statement. “Something like this should never happen again to an incumbent president, or anyone else who didn’t deserve punishment.”
Some civil rights groups and many Democrats criticized Facebook’s acquittal for Trump under conditions as “dangerous”. It is foreseeable that the ex-president, who to this day has not acknowledged his election defeat in 2020 and speaks of widespread electoral fraud, “will continue to push the limits of what can be said and exceed them”. Other organizations explained that one had to endure in the service of democracy , if wrong or radical views are expressed. That is always better than censorship.
More articles from this category can be found here: Politics
