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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Chose different path but did not break relationship: Uddhav Thackeray on Ajit Pawar
Mumbai (PTI): Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday condoled Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar's death in a plane crash, and said even though the NCP chief chose a different path in politics, he did not let their relationship suffer.
In a post on X, the former chief minister said in Pawar's death, he has lost a steadfast leader and an excellent former cabinet colleague.
As finance minister, Pawar was an extremely disciplined leader with a firm grip on his department, he said.
Ajit Pawar had served as deputy CM in the Uddhav Thackeray-led government from 2019 to 2022.
"We developed a special bond as colleagues. Ajit Pawar was open-hearted. He would speak his mind. He was not someone who held a grudge for long. Even though he chose a different path in politics, he did not let our relationship break," Uddhav Thackeray said.
Pawar broke away from the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance of the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress in 2023 and joined the BJP-led NDA, a move which split the Nationalist Congress Party.
He was known as a leader who valued his party workers, and he was truly a 'Dada' (elder brother), Thackeray said, as he offered tributes to Ajit Pawar on behalf of the Thackeray family and Shiv Sena (UBT).
His son and former minister Aaditya Thackeray described Pawar's death as shocking. "Words fail me," he said, adding that he had the opportunity to work with Ajit Pawar for five-six years, first in the government and then in the opposition.
"His commanding grip on legislative affairs and his affectionate nature won over many like me. Even when I was in the opposition, I had publicly said this many times," Aaditya said.
एक खंबीर नेता व माझ्या मंत्रिमंडळातील मी उमदा सहकारी गमावला!
— Office of Uddhav Thackeray (@OfficeofUT) January 28, 2026
मी मुख्यमंत्री असताना अजित पवार हे उपमुख्यमंत्री, अर्थमंत्री होते. अत्यंत शिस्तप्रिय, आपल्या खात्यावर वचक व अर्थ विभागाचा अभ्यास असणारे ते नेते होते. एक उत्तम सहकारी म्हणून त्यांचे माझे विशेष नाते जमले. अजित पवार हे…
