Facebook lifts restrictions on Trump, giving him equal footing with Biden on the social media site

WASHINGTON — Facebook has lifted restrictions imposed by Donald Trump following the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, putting the former president on an equal footing with President Joe Biden on the platform just days before the Republican National Convention.

The social media giant initially banned the former president from using its platforms in 2021 after his supporters stormed the Capitol. Facebook’s parent company Meta lifted that ban last year but announced that Trump would be subject to “restrictions” including “enhanced suspension penalties” if posts violated its standards.

Now the company has lifted those restrictions, arguing that while they were put in place after the “extreme and extraordinary circumstances” of the attack on the Capitol, Trump had done nothing to put them in violation of the restrictions.

“As we assess our responsibility to allow political expression, we believe the American people should be able to hear from our presidential nominees on the same basis,” Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, wrote in a statement on the company’s website Friday.

Clegg added that both Biden and Trump are still subject to the same “community standards” that apply to all other users of the company’s platforms, including Facebook and Instagram.

Facebook, the world’s largest social media site, was both a publicity vehicle and a key venue for soliciting donations from supporters of Trump’s previous campaigns.

However, he now posts regularly on his own Truth Social site, which he launched after Facebook and other parties suspended him.