Help from the tech scene - Trump can post again on Facebook and Instagram - and gets money from Elon Musk
Facebook corporation lifts remaining restrictions for former President and Biden challenger Donald Trump. This means that he faces no harsher penalties for rule violations. Trump regained access to his Facebook and Instagram accounts at the beginning of 2023. At that time, he could have been banned again for repeated infractions of platform rules.
Meta referred to the update of the previous blog post and stated that Trump would soon be officially nominated as the Republican Party's presidential candidate. The public has the right to hear from candidates of both parties on an equal basis. At the same time, the corporation emphasized that all candidates are subject to the same fundamental rules, such as those prohibiting hate speech or insults.
Trump banned from social media platforms after Capitol storming
Trump was banned from major online platforms towards the end of his tenure, following the unprecedented events at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. His supporters stormed the Capitol building, and Trump had previously incited them with the baseless claim that he had been cheated out of the presidency in the 2020 election.
In his online messages before and after the Capitol attack, Trump openly expressed sympathy for the rioters. The platform administrators feared that new violence could ensue if Trump was not banned.
Facebook initially indefinitely banned Trump. However, the independent oversight board of Meta, which can review content and account decisions, eventually concluded that an indefinite ban was not in line with the platform's rules. It decided that Trump's accounts on Facebook and Instagram could only be blocked for two years – and then be reevaluated.
Musk overspends on Trump support group
Trump was further pleased by another report: According to a media report, billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk donated money to a group supporting the former U.S. President in his ongoing presidential campaign. The "Bloomberg" report cites insiders.
The report did not reveal how much money Musk donated. The amount Musk paid to the "America PAC" was described as "significant."
Political Action Committees (PACs) can collect unlimited funds for political activities but are not controlled by the candidates in the campaign. The "America PAC" is required to disclose its donor list on July 15, according to Bloomberg.
In March, Trump met with Elon Musk and other wealthy donors. Musk wrote on X afterwards that he would not donate money to either candidate for the U.S. Presidency. In May, he also denied media reports that there had been talks about a possible advisory role for him in a potential new Trump presidency. Elon Musk has not yet commented on the matter.
After the Facebook corporation lifted the remaining restrictions on Trump's accounts, Joe Biden, his former presidential rival, expressed concern about the equal treatment of candidates on social media platforms. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, was reported to have donated a significant amount to a pro-Trump Political Action Committee (PAC), which raised questions about his earlier statement of not supporting any candidate for the U.S. Presidency.
