Trumps Premature Return to Social Media
On January 25, Meta announced that former President Donald Trump will be allowed to return to Instagram and Facebook after a more than two year ban from the apps. Trump’s ban came after he used social media to incite the January 6 riots on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. Nick Clegg, the president of global affairs at Facebook’s parent company, explained that they believe the risk to public safety that led to Trump's ban has diminished. But in actuality, there is no evidence that Trump's behavior has changed—if anything, it has become more erratic.
During his time off the apps, Trump created his own social media platform, Truth Social. This platform was such a success because it was the only “true free-speech” platform. In terms of far right conspiracies, nothing was too dangerous to post. On other platforms these posts would not be allowed. If his posts on this platform are a reliable indicator into what his return will look like, Nick Clegg, a former prime minister of the UK, is going to regret his decision. Clegg explained that “free speech” was at the forefront of their decision to let Trump back on the apps. People need to be able to hear what politicians are saying, and this is even more important for Trump, as he is running for president in the upcoming election. The difference between what Trump posted using free speech and what others posted is that it caused real-world harm. He continued to use his public voice and influence to push his far right agenda and claims through Truth Social. False claims, specifically of election fraud, are what lead to the Capital riot in the first place. Although Clegg claims that any post that “delegitimizes ” the upcoming election or pushes QAnon conspiracies will be blocked from other people's feed, these posts do not go against their community standards. If he loses in the upcoming election, there is no doubt that there will be a repeat of what happened after his previous loss. His ego and inability to let things go will reflect harshly in his actions after the election.
The two year sabbatical from social media was to teach Trump a lesson about his actions, but in reality, he hasn’t learned anything. Truth Social’s platform only reaches a far right audience, so his covid and election myths reached a smaller audience of viewers. However, as he rejoins the rest of society on bigger platforms like Instagram and Facebook, his words will have a much larger and more dangerous impact. Trump has in no way fixed his behavior that got him removed in the first place. Since February of 2022, Trump has shared hundreds of posts by accounts promoting the conspiracy group QAnon, and he continues to insist that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for Trump, explained that “President Trump should have never been banned on these social media platforms, and everybody knows their decisions were unjust and ultimately destroyed the integrity of our democracy.” The irony of this statement is not lost. Trump's claims that the democratic presidential election process was fake and stolen “destroyed the integrity of our democracy” even more than being kicked off a platform ever could, and further spread of his rhetoric which could worsen the damage that has already been done.
By Caroline Cranman