Donald Trump is back on Facebook and YouTube

Rémi Jacob, with AFP 11:22 am, March 20, 2023

Former US President Donald Trump, who is seeking a second term in 2024, posted Friday, March 17, 2023 on Facebook and YouTube for the first time since his exclusion more than two years ago following the assault on the Capitol.

"Sorry for keeping you waiting"

"I'M BACK!" the businessman wrote. "Sorry to keep you waiting, it was complicated," he said in a short CNN video accompanying his message, which appears to date from the night of his election in 2016.

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His words were met with thousands of comments, including several "Good to see you again" and "What a relief that you are back Mr. President." Donald Trump has 34 million subscribers on Facebook and more than 2.6 million on YouTube.

Donald Trump was banned from social networks in January 2021

Earlier on Friday, online video platform YouTube announced it was ending its suspension. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, made a similar announcement in late January. "As of today, the 'Donald J. Trump' channel is no longer subject to restrictions," YouTube said on Twitter. The 76-year-old Republican was banned from mainstream social networks in January 2021, while still in power, for encouraging his supporters during the congressional attack in Washington.

On January 6 of that year, thousands of his supporters convinced that the 2020 election had been marred by fraud, despite the scattering of evidence to the contrary, attacked the Capitol in an attempt to prevent the certification of Joe Biden's election.

A green light for "toxic content"

Media Matters for America sharply criticized Meta's decision to let the former president use the tech giants' enormous communication potential. "Meta's decision is a green light for Trump to promote toxic content on its platforms, and it shows that the company still prioritizes profit, and appeasing far-right figures, not public safety," she said in a statement.

To justify its decision, YouTube said Friday that it had assessed "the risk of violence" while taking into account the importance, for voters, to hear "equally the major national candidates". In addition to YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, Donald Trump had already been readmitted in November on Twitter, by the new boss Elon Musk. Until now, he communicated mainly via his own platform, Truth Social.

Late Friday afternoon, he had not posted on Instagram or Twitter, his former platform of choice on which he now has no less than 87.4 million subscribers and which he used avidly before his suspension.

In his last tweet, dated January 8, 2021, the one who keeps repeating that the 2020 presidential election was "stolen" from him announced that he would not go to the nomination of his Democratic rival Joe Biden.