Fact check: Donald Trump remains suspended from Facebook, Instagram
The claim: Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts have been reinstated
Days before Facebook upheld its ban on former President Donald Trump, posts suggesting the opposite started to circulate on social media.
A June 2 Facebook post claimed two of Trump’s social media accounts are back online.
“BREAKING NEWS: DONALD J. TRUMP’S FACEBOOK & INSTAGRAM ACCOUNTS HAVE BEEN RESTORED,” reads the post.
The evidence presented was screenshots of Trump’s live accounts on Facebook and Instagram, which Facebook owns. The post has accumulated more than 700 interactions, and similarversions of the claim have circulated on social media.
The Hodgetwins, conservative social media personalities with more than 6 million Facebook followers, added to the chorus with a June 2 comment on an old post on Trump’s Facebook account, saying “WELCOME BACK! YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAH.” It accumulated about 8,000 reactions within a few days.
But these claims are false — just like the claim USA TODAY debunked that Trump was back on Twitter.
Facebook announced June 4 that Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts will remain banned until 2023. Trump’s pages are still visible to the public, but he and his team can’t post to them. Trump has been banned from the platforms since Jan. 7, one day after the insurrection at the United States Capitol.
USA TODAY reached out to the Facebook user who shared the post for comment.
Trump’s pages viewable, but he can’t post
Trump’s Facebook and Instagram profiles are visible to the public, with the latest posts dating back to early January. But just because they’re viewable doesn’t mean Trump is active on either platform.
According to Facebook, he can’t be.
Trump’s accounts were suspended Jan. 7 after he praised supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. As of June 2, the date the Facebook post was published, the accounts were indefinitely suspended, company spokesperson Andy Stone confirmed on Twitter.
Stone posted the tweet a couple days before Facebook upheld its suspension of Trump.
Trump suspended until 2023
On June 4, Facebook announced Trump’s accounts will remain suspended until Jan. 7, 2023.
The decision came a month after the Oversight Board, a company-funded group of outside experts, upheld Facebook’s suspension of Trump. But the Oversight Board criticized the open-ended nature of the suspension, calling it an “indeterminate and standardless penalty,” and suggested a review.
In the June decision, Facebook announced it would uphold its suspension of Trump’s accounts for a year and a half. After that, Facebook will “look to experts to assess whether the risk to public safety has receded,” according to the company’s decision.
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“We will evaluate external factors, including instances of violence, restrictions on peaceful assembly and other markers of civil unrest,” Nick Clegg, vice president of global affairs at Facebook, wrote in a press release. “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.”
In the meantime, neither Trump nor his team will be able to post to his Facebook or Instagram pages.
“(Former) President Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts remain suspended until at least Jan 2023. This means that while his accounts are visible, he and his team can’t access them,” Sally Aldous, a Facebook spokesperson, told USA TODAY via email.
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USA TODAY
Our rating: False
The claim that Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts have been restored is FALSE, based on our research. Facebook confirmed the accounts were indefinitely suspended as of June 2. On June 4, Facebook announced the ban on both accounts would remain until at least Jan. 7, 2023. The accounts, while visible online, can’t be updated and are not accessible to Trump or his team.
Our fact-checking sources:
- Facebook post, June 2
- USA TODAY, June 3, Fact Check: Trump’s Twitter account remains suspended
- Facebook, June 4, In Response to Oversight Board, Trump Suspended for Two Years; Will Only Be Reinstated if Conditions Permit
- Oversight Board, May 5, Oversight Board upholds former President Trump’s suspension, finds Facebook failed to impose proper penalty
- Sally Aldous, June 4, Email exchange with USA TODAY
- Snopes, June 2, Were Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram Accounts Restored?
- Davey Alba, June 4, Twitter
- USA TODAY, June 4, Facebook suspends Donald Trump for two years, citing ‘severe violation’ after Capitol riots
- Facebook, Jan. 7, Our Response to the Violence in Washington
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