Meta to restore former US President Trump's Facebook, Instagram accounts
Washington (PTI): Meta Platforms Inc has said that it will restore former US President Donald Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts, which were suspended following the Capitol Hill riots on January 6, 2021.
Trump, 76, announced in November last year that he will make another dash for the White House in 2024.
Before his accounts got suspended, he had 34 million followers on Facebook and 23 million on Instagram.
"The suspension was an extraordinary decision taken in extraordinary circumstances," Nick Clegg, president Global Affairs, Meta said in a blog post on Wednesday.
"The public should be able to hear what politicians are saying so they can make informed choices," he said.
Clegg asserted that under its new newsworthy content policy if Meta assesses there is a public interest in knowing that Trump made the statement that outweighs any potential harm, it may opt to restrict the distribution of such posts but still leave them visible on his account.
"We default to letting people speak, even when what they have to say is distasteful or factually wrong. Democracy is messy and people should be able to make their voices heard," Clegg wrote.
"We believe it is both necessary and possible to draw a line between content that is harmful and should be removed, and content that, however distasteful or inaccurate, is part of the rough and tumble of life in a free society," he said.
Clegg said Meta has put new guardrails in place to deter repeat offenses."
Facebook is not only the world's largest social media site, but also a critical source of fundraising for Trump's political campaigns.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump responded by saying: "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."
Trump was reinstated by Twitter in November last year after Elon Musk took over the company
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Govt has not stopped Kumaraswamy from fighting from his end, clarifies DK Shivakumar
Hassan sex scandal
Bengaluru: Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar declared that the government had not obstructed JD(S) State President HD Kumaraswamy from fighting legally in the Hassan sex scandal, where JD(S) MP from Hassan Prajwal Revanna, who is Kumaraswamy's nephew, is the primary accused.
The JD(S) senior leader and former CM of Karnataka was welcome to stand up for the MP as well as his father and Kumaraswamy's elder brother HD Revanna to fight against the allegations faced by the duo, Shivakumar told the reporters who met him near his house at Sadashiva Nagar on Thursday.
He stressed on the freedom given by the state government when a reporter pointed out that Kumaraswamy has been demanding that the case be handed over from the Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed by the state government to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for a probe. Shivakumar, however, said that he would comment on the CBI taking over the investigation after he returned from the campaign rallies in Andhra Pradesh.
The Deputy CM also refused to comment on opinions regarding his involvement in the case, clarifying that he had given his full statement on the issue already. The rest of the matter would be discussed in the Assembly session, he added.
