Donald Trump made waves yesterday after Meta, Inc. announced it was reinstating the Facebook account of the twice-impeached former president of the United States following a two-year ban for inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol riots. Shortly thereafter the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) weighed in with its support for the decision, which incited an angry mob of Twitter users of their own.
In a post to its official Twitter account, the ACLU called the reinstatement “the right call,” and said, “Like it or not, President Trump is one of the country’s leading political figures and the public has a strong interest in hearing his speech.”
Responses to the tweet have varied from indifference, to support, to flat-out hatred. Renowned author and social commentator Roxane Gay swiftly rebuked the ACLU’s decision, saying she was “surprised by your saying this.”
Among those in Gay’s camp was comedian and actor Hal Sparks, who likened Trump’s Twitter discourse to “yelling fire in a crowded theater,” a blanket statement often used to encapsulate the parameters of free speech; a statement that often limits free speech in and of itself, according to The Atlantic.
Donors of the ACLU have taken its statement as grounds to reconsider their commitment to the organization.
As a whole, a vast majority of people have cited Trump’s breaking of Facebook’s Terms of Service as grounds to expel him indefinitely, especially because they are a private company.
That said, Trump’s suspension was not strictly due to violating the company’s Terms of Service. Instead, Meta called the move an “unprecedented action” born of “an unprecedented set of events” and that the decision was made “according to Community Standards we have developed over many years.”
“Our decision to suspend then-President Trump’s access was taken in extraordinary circumstances,” said Nick Glegg, the now-present of global affairs at the company. “A US president actively fomenting a violent insurrection designed to thwart the peaceful transition of power; five people killed; legislators fleeing the seat of democracy. This has never happened before — and we hope it will never happen again. It was an unprecedented set of events which called for unprecedented action.”
The suspension was intended to be permanent, but in June 2021, five months following the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, the company’s Oversight Board announced the suspension would hold for only two years, ending on Jan. 7, 2023. Yesterday, the company officially confirmed Trump’s reinstatement, saying he would be allowed back on the platform “in the coming weeks.”
“The public should be able to hear what their politicians are saying,” read the statement. “The good, the bad and the ugly — so that they can make informed choices at the ballot box.” The statement then went on to say that “Democracy is messy and people should be able to make their voices heard. We believe it is both necessary and possible to draw a line between content that is harmful and should be removed, and content that, however distasteful or inaccurate, is part of the rough and tumble of life in a free society.”
While the “rough and tumble” aspect of free speech remains an unquestionable component of Trump’s return to Facebook, the company has pledged to put new “guardrails” in place to “deter repeat offenses.” Per the statement, Trump will face “heightened penalties for repeat offenses — penalties which will apply to other public figures whose accounts are reinstated from suspensions related to civil unrest under our updated protocol.”
This is not the first time the ACLU has supported Trump’s return to Facebook. In 2021, four months after the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, the organization agreed that Trump should receive a temporary suspension, but called his permanent suspension “inappropriate.” With his return to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, Trump once again has access to three of the most popular platforms on the Internet.