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A Timeline
of Trumps Return to Facebook

Looking back at the series of events leading up to Facebook’s decision to suspend Trump’s accounts for a period of two years from the January 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection, through when Meta’s decision to reinstate his account was announced on January 25, 2023.

  • January 7, 2021:

    The day after the Capitol insurrection, Facebook indefinitely suspends Trump for his “use of our platform to incite violent insurrection against a democratically elected government” as explained in a post by Mark Zuckerberg.

  • January 7-13, 2021:

    Reddit permanently bans the r/DonaldTrump subreddit. TikTok permanently removes Trump’s speeches. Twitter permanently bans Trump’s account. YouTube indefinitely bans Trump’s account. Snapchat permanently bans Trump’s account.

  • May 5, 2021:

    The Facebook Oversight Board upholds the suspension of Trump, putting forth 19 recommendations for the company’s consideration, including “imposing a time-bound period of suspension” for Trump and giving the company 30 days to respond.

  • June 4, 2021:

    Facebook announces that Trump’s suspension will last two years with the potential for extension: "If we determine that there is still a serious risk to public safety, we will extend the restriction for a set period of time and continue to re-evaluate until that risk has receded.”

  • September 22, 2022:

    Nick Clegg, Meta’s President of Global Affairs, says at a Semafor event that Trump could be allowed back on Facebook once his suspension expires in January 2023.

  • January 25, 2023:

    Meta announces their decision to reinstate Trump’s Facebook account after determining that “the risk has sufficiently receded.”

Why Facebook Should Not Have Reinstated Trump’s Account

Trump has continued to call for violence. He has flung incendiary threats against elected officials – recently saying Senator Mitch McConnell has a “DEATH WISH” for supporting election protection legislation. After the FBI raided his house in Mar-a-Lago to reclaim classified government documents, Trump teased another insurrection, saying there would be “problems in this country, the likes of which…we’ve never seen before” if he’s charged.

Domestic terrorists have taken Trump’s cues and attacked federal law enforcement organizations. Many Trump supporters are now openly advocating for civil war.

Trump’s proliferation of election disinformation around the 2020 presidential election fueled the Stop the Steal movement and incited the January 6 Capitol insurrection. His lies about election integrity have endangered voters, elected officials, and poll workers — sowing distrust in the American electoral system.

Trump still has not accepted the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. He has continued to spread election disinformation, recently calling for a “new election immediately” in a post on his new social media platform, Truth Social. Since he launched Truth Social in February 2022, Media Matters found at least 58 mentions of the word “rigged” in at least 55 of his posts, and at least 255 mentions of the word “election” in at least 195 of his posts.

In October of 2020, Facebook permanently banned QAnon content on the platform stating “we will remove any Facebook Pages, Groups and Instagram accounts representing QAnon, even if they contain no violent content.” Since Trump’s suspension from the platform, his embrace of QAnon has escalated.

He has repeatedly embraced QAnon with recent rallies featuring the conspiratorial movement’s anthem and salute. Based on an analysis by Media Matters, Trump has amplified at least 61 QAnon accounts more than 130 times on his own social media platform, Truth Social.