San Francisco: Former US President Donald Trump is reportedly trying to regain control of his powerful social media accounts in a bid to return to the White House.
As NBC News reports, Trump’s campaign is formally petitioning Facebook’s parent company Meta to unblock his account, which was shut down two years ago in response to the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot .
“We believe that the restriction of President Trump’s account on Facebook has dramatically distorted and inhibited public discourse,” Trump’s campaign wrote in its letter to Meta, according to a copy reviewed by NBC News.
The campaign did not, however, threaten a lawsuit.
Instead, it emphasized the importance of free speech and petitioned Meta to “meet to discuss the early reinstatement of President Trump to the platform”.
However, a Meta spokesperson said the company “will announce a decision in the coming weeks in accordance with the process we have set in place”, NBC News reported.
On January 7, Facebook finally decided to impose a limited ban on Trump, which would be reviewed after two years.
Twitter had planned to impose a permanent ban, but on November 19, 2022, new owner Elon Musk reinstated Trump’s account and again criticized the company’s previous leadership for the ban.