Donald Trump’s campaign has sent a formal petition to Meta, asking for his Facebook account to be unblocked, following a two-year ban in response to the Capitol riot.
“We believe that the ban on President Trump’s account on Facebook has dramatically distorted and inhibited the public discourse,” Trump’s campaign wrote in a letter to Meta.
The letter falls short of threatening legal action, instead asking for a “meeting to discuss President Trump’s prompt reinstatement to the platform.”
After the January 6 Capitol riot, Trump was banned from the platform indefinitely.
“The shocking events of the last 24 hours clearly demonstrate that President Donald Trump intends to use his remaining time in office to undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power to his elected successor, Joe Biden,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote.
“[Trump’s] decision to use his platform to condone rather than condemn the actions of his supporters at the Capitol building has rightly disturbed people in the US and around the world.”
After Facebook’s independent Oversight Board criticised the “open-ended nature” of the band, Meta’s president of global affairs, Nick Clegg announced a two-year provisional suspension.
“At the end of this period, we will look to experts to assess whether the risk to public safety has receded,” Clegg wrote at the time.
“We will evaluate external factors, including instances of violence, restrictions on peaceful assembly and other markers of civil unrest. 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.”
Trump’s campaign has zeroed in on this, noting the time has passed. It quotes Clegg as saying “any private company should tread with great thoughtfulness when seeking to, basically, silence political voices”, adding:
“We also believe that a continued ban would basically constitute, in the words of Mr. Clegg, a deliberate effort by a private company to silence Mr. Trump’s political voice.
“Moreover, every day that President Trump’s political voice remains silenced furthers an inappropriate interference in the American political and election process.”
Meta said it “will announce a decision in the coming weeks, in line with the process we laid out.”