Donald Trump announced his candidacy for american presidentor, officially starting his electoral campaign for the 2024 session. News that comes after the electoral disappointment for the Republican Party in the midterms and in the middle of several Justice Department investigations about the ex-president. But there is at least one positive note for Donald Trump: Facebook he reminded in an internal note to his employees that now that he is a candidatethey no longer have to do fact-checking about what he says. And the ex-president could return to the platform as early as February 6, 2023, after the ban following the assault on the Capitol.
Donald Trump runs for president, Facebook will no longer fact-check what he says
Currently, ex-President Trump is not present on social media (except for the one he founded, Truth Social, which just landed on Android). Several platforms had indeed chosen to ban the former president after his supporters had stormed the Capitol to contest the election of Joe Biden as US president. In the attack on the heart of American institutions, five people lost their lives.
That act of aggression against democracy had cost a Trump a second impeachment and being banned from all social media. But the situation is changing. L’impeachment has not been confirmed by the Senate (and therefore Trump can run again). Twitterwho had banned him for life, is now controlled by a CEO who has already said he “assume” that Trump should return. And the Facebook ban is about to end: although there was no expiration date at the beginning, Meta will reevaluate the matter after two years. So on January 6, 2023, twenty-four months after a mob broke down the doors of the American Congress.
And if Trump were to return to social media, the moderators would not be able to correct any lies of the candidate. Which according to the Washington Post, he said some 30,573 during the four years of presidency.
No checks for candidates
CNN was able to get its hands on an internal memo Meta sent to employees hours before Trump’s Mar-a-Lago announcement, when re-nomination was just a rumor. The note recalled that “iPolitical speech is ineligible for fact-checking”. This includes not only what the candidate dicebut also photographs, videos and other content created by the politician or by whoever leads his electoral campaign.
“Some of you have reached out to us seeking guidance on fact-checking political speeches ahead of former President Donald Trump’s potential candidacy announcement,” the Facebook statement read. “If former President Trump makes a clear and public announcement for the candidacywill be considered a politician by our policies”.
A rule that has already existed since 2019. But the apprehension of employees is understandable when one considers that Trump has already started his candidacy by discussing fake news: during the announcement he suggested, for example, that China may have rigged the 2020 election to make him lose.
If then Meta next 6 January 2023 decides to readmit Donald Trump on the platform, his election campaign could disseminate this information without any fact checking. Trump has exceeded 30,000 lies in four years as president, who knows how many he will be able to tell in two as a candidate.