Truth Social is on the way to get Donald Trump back on Facebook

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Two years ago, Donald Trump encouraged a band of his political supporters to storm the US Capitol building and disrupt the presidential election certification process. Five people died in the riot, including a US Capitol police officer. Trump wooed his supporters with the help of his wildly popular social media accounts.

Two years later, Twitter and Meta restored Trump’s access to his accounts just in time for the start of the 2024 presidential campaign season.

Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, announced its decision on Wednesday (Jan. 25), two months after Twitter reinstated Trump. While Twitter’s reasoning has more to do with its sale to Elon Musk, the abillionaire is committed to an unspecified mission of promoting free speech, Meta cited a different rationale.

The Facebook Oversight Board, a pseudo-independent body Meta set up to review the most shocking content moderation decisions, ruled in July that the company should determine the length of Trumps indefinite suspension and recommended it ends after a two-year spell. The recommendation comes with a caveat: Restore Trumps accounts, as long as he does not pose a risk to public safety.

The suspension was an extraordinary decision made in extraordinary circumstances, Nick Clegg, Metas chief lobbyist, wrote in a statement. The normal course is that the public should hear from a former President of the United States, and a declared candidate for that office again, on our platforms. Clegg said Meta had determined Trump did not pose a direct and immediate threat and said his account would be reinstated in the coming weeks with new guardrails in place to prevent repeat offenses.

If Trump posts anything that violates the Metas community guidelines, the offending posts will be removed and he will face a suspension of between one month and two years, depending on the severity of the offense.

The previous social media styles will be the community guidelines of most social media sites. He has spread vaccine misinformation, allegedly rigged elections, and promoted conspiracy theories about his political enemies. On Facebook and Twitter, he can continue to evangelize the mass audience whether he is being sought or not.

But Trumps social media days since his suspensions in 2021 have been limited to a domain of his own creation and financial support ironically named Truth Social, a Twitter lookalike that boasts about 2 million active users (nowhere near Twitters user base of around 250 million or Facebooks 2 billion). Not only is Truth Social a spam-filled right-wing echo-chamber and the subject of multiple securities fraud investigations, it also presents a legal hurdle for Trump to rejoin other social media platforms.

How Truth Social limits what Donald Trump can say

Truth Social is a bust. Truth Media and Technology Group, the parent of the apps company, tried its hardest to merge with a blank-check corporation SPAC but failed to get regulatory approval for the acquisition. The problem stems from allegations, reported in 2021 by the New York Times, that the two entities arranged the acquisition before Digital World, the blank-check company, even went public. Because it would be a violation of US securities laws, the deal is still awaiting approval by the US Securities and Exchange Commission and has received a subpoena from a federal grand jury in New York.

Beyond the regulatory problems, Trump has an additional contractual problem.

According to an SEC filing from May 2022, President Trump is generally obligated to make any social media post on Truth Social and may not make the same post on another social media site for 6 hours. However, he is exempt from making a post from a personal account related to political messaging, political fundraising or get-out-the-vote efforts on any social media site at any time. This probably explains why Trump still hasn’t posted on Twitter on his preferred social media platform even though he’s been allowed to do so for two months.

Trump’s social media posts are mostly political, but the former president isn’t just a casual social media user, he seems to post whatever comes to mind with minimal oversight. Sometimes it’s hard to tell what’s political and what’s not. Here’s an example from Wednesday’s Truth Social:

One of the greatest privileges I had as President was firing Deborah Birx. The only thing she had access to were beautiful scarves… The only thing she looked up to was herself!

Just today, he also posted about his winery, the Washington Posts fake news, an oil painting of his, and his current poll numbers.

But, maybe Truth Social will soon be a problem of the past. According to a new report by Rolling Stone, Trump is looking to terminate the exclusivity agreement when it expires in June 2023. The decision could be terrible for the Trumps wallet, but will be key to mounting a presidential run.

How is Trump going to win the presidency if he’s just crying out for nothing on a platform that no one else is using?

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