Meta Platforms’ decision to withdraw the suspension, announced on Wednesday, means the former president can now reach tens of millions of followers across the two services as he makes another presidential bid.

Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, said on Twitter that the company did not want to get in the way of open debate especially  “in the context of democratic elections”.

As a general rule, we don’t want to get in the way of open debate on our platforms, esp in context of democratic elections. People should be able to hear what politicians are saying – good, bad & ugly – to make informed choices at the ballot box. 1/4

— Nick Clegg (@nickclegg) January 25, 2023

Trump lost access to his accounts on 6 January 2021 after the company deemed that some of his posts were encouraging his supporters to violently riot at the US Capitol to try to stop Congress from confirming the results of the presidential election, which President Joe Biden won. The temporary suspension was changed to an “indefinite” suspension the following day.

Meta convened an Oversight Board — a group of outside lawyers, journalists and policy experts paid by Meta — to review its decision. With its input, the company decided that the suspension would last for at least two years. Clegg was the executive responsible for deciding whether to reinstate his account, taking the heat off of Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive officer. DM

(By Kurt Wagner and Mark Niquette)