Meta executive Nick Clegg says he will make the final call on whether to reinstate Donald Trump’s Facebook account when his suspension from the social media platform runs out next year.
Mr Clegg, the company’s head of global affairs, told an event in Washington DC that allowing the one-term president to potentially return to Facebook is “a decision I oversee and I drive”.
Mr Trump’s account was suspended by the social media platform following posts the company said violated its incitement of violence policy during the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.
The former UK deputy prime minister told the event held by the news outlet Semafor that he would consult Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and the Meta board before making any final decision by 7 January 2023.
“It’s not a capricious decision,” he said. “We will look at the signals related to real-world harm to make a decision whether at the two-year point — which is early January next year — whether Trump gets reinstated to the platform,” he stated, according to Politico.
Mr Clegg would not tip his hand at which way he was leaning on Mr Trump’s account.
“We’ll talk to the experts, we’ll talk to third parties, we will try to assess what we think the implications will be of bringing Trump back onto the platform,” he said.
“I’m very mindful that if you have this significant ability to take decisions which affect the public realm as a private sector company you need to act with great caution and reticence, you shouldn’t throw your weight about.”
And he added: “American democracy is not our democracy — it’s your democracy.”
Facebook’s suspension of Mr Trump was later upheld by the company’s oversight board, which decided it would last for a two-year period.
Mr Trump’s social media posts on January 6 also saw him permanently banned from Twitter and Google’s YouTube, to heavy criticism from Republican politicians and Mr Trump’s supporters.
In response, the one-term president launched his own social media platform, Truth Social, where he now posts.
