Meta’s decision to reverse the suspension of Trump’s accounts comes on the heels of a similar move made by Twitter in November following its takeover by billionaire Elon Musk, but the former president has not yet resumed tweeting, opting instead to remain on Truth Social.

Facebook parent company Meta has announced it will restore former United States President Donald Trump’s accounts on Facebook and Instagram in the coming weeks, just over two years after suspending him in the wake of the January 6 Capitol attack.

In a Wednesday blog post, Meta President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg said: “Our determination is that the risk [to public safety] has sufficiently receded. As such, we will be reinstating Mr. Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts in the coming weeks. However, we are doing so with new guardrails in place to deter repeat offenses.”

In his statement, Clegg added that the public “should be able to hear what their politicians are saying”.

The then-US president was indefinitely suspended from Facebook and Instagram after the Capitol riot in 2021. According to Clegg, Meta had taken action following Trump’s “praise for people engaged in violence at the Capitol”.

“The suspension was an extraordinary decision taken in extraordinary circumstances,” he added, noting that a review found that Trump’s accounts no longer represented a serious risk to public safety.

Clegg said the former president could be suspended for as much as two years at a time for violating platform policies in the future.

Responding to Meta’s decision to restore his accounts, Trump said on his own social media platform, Truth Social, that Facebook had “lost Billions” after banning “your favorite President, me”.

“Such a thing should never again happen to a sitting President, or anybody else who is not deserving of retribution!” he added.

News of Trump’s reinstatement was quickly criticised by a number of Democrats and activist organisations who expressed concern that he could use the platform again to repeat false claims that he won the 2020 election.

California Democratic Representative Adam Schiff twitted that “Trump incited an insurrection” and “giving him back access to a social media platform to spread his lies and demagoguery is dangerous,” noting that the former president has shown “no remorse” for his actions around the January 6 attack.

Derrick Johnson, the president of the NAACP, a civil rights organisation, called the decision  a “grave mistake” that is “a prime example of putting profits above people’s safety.”