According to an updated blog post on Friday, Meta has decided to lift the heightened suspension penalties on former President Donald Trump’s accounts on Facebook and Instagram. The company made the decision to ensure that all presidential nominees have an equal opportunity on their platform before the 2024 presidential election.
When Meta reinstated Trump’s account profiles in January 2023, the company imposed more stringent penalties on him compared to other users. Given the increased penalties, the previous president could have faced a ban of up to two years for breaching Meta’s community standards. According to the company, Trump will face the same penalties as any other Facebook or Instagram user.
For regular users, violating Facebook’s Community Standards will result in a warning, according to the established guidelines. Following two infractions, users may face temporary restrictions on certain posting capabilities. Users are only banned from posting for an entire day after committing seven violations, and it takes 10 strikes to receive a month-long ban. 
“When considering our duty to uphold political expression, we firmly believe in providing equal opportunity for the American people to hear from all presidential nominees,” stated Meta in a recent blog post.
Meta initially suspended Trump’s accounts after the events of January 6, 2021, when Facebook served as his primary platform for connecting with his online followers. During that time, CEO Mark Zuckerberg expressed concerns about the potential risks of allowing the President to continue using our service, leading to the decision to ban Trump indefinitely. In recent times, Trump has maintained a regular presence on Facebook for his 34 million followers, but he is even more engaged on his own social media platform, Truth Social.
The company has decided to reduce its strict punishments for the former president right before the 2024 Republican National Convention. Nevertheless, according to Meta, these increased suspension penalties were implemented in response to exceptional situations and were never used against Trump.
Earlier this week, Donald Trump made a strong statement directed at Mark Zuckerberg on Truth Social. The previous president vowed to incarcerate those involved in “election fraud” and referred to the CEO of Meta by his new nickname, “Zuckerbucks.” Trump cautioned Zuckerberg to exercise caution.
