Former President Donald Trump posted to Facebook on Friday for the first time since getting booted from the platform in January 2021.
“I’M BACK!” he posted along with a short clip of his remarks after winning the 2016 presidential election. “Sorry to keep you waiting, complicated business. Complicated,” he says in the clip.
Meta lifted its suspension of Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts in January, though the president posted to neither until Friday. The former president’s return to Facebook coincides with his ban from YouTube, a platform run by Google, being lifted as well.
Twitter was the first major social media platform to lift its ban on Trump after the former president was suspended from multiple platforms following the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. Twitter CEO Elon Musk reactivated Trump’s Twitter account in November after buying the social media platform last year.
Trump has yet to return to Twitter, which was a staple of his communications prior to being banned in early 2021. Pundits have speculated if and when Trump will make a return to the platform as he campaigns for a 2024 presidential run.
On Friday, YouTube also announced that, “starting today, the Donald J. Trump channel is no longer restricted and can upload new content.”
“We carefully evaluated the continued risk of real-world violence, while balancing the chance for voters to hear equally from major national candidates in the run up to an election,” they wrote.
Read the full story here.
Scroll down to leave a comment and share your thoughts.