It was only on Friday that YouTube lifted the block imposed on Trump’s user account after the Capitol storm on January 6, 2021. The Google subsidiary said it carefully weighed the “risk of violence” and the opportunity for voters “to hear equally from all major national candidates before an election” when making the decision.
Trump wants to retake the White House in the 2024 presidential election and is currently the most promising contender for the Republican presidential nomination.
The Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta had already announced the activation of Trump’s accounts at the end of January. The short message service Twitter, in turn, had already done so in November, a few weeks after it was taken over by the technology entrepreneur Elon Musk – shortly after Trump announced a renewed candidacy for the presidency.
The major online platforms had blocked Trump’s user accounts after radical supporters of the then president stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. They cited the risk of further violence as justification.
Hundreds of supporters of the President-elect stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021 to prevent an official confirmation of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the November 2020 presidential election. For weeks, Trump had been spreading the false claim that massive election fraud had robbed him of a second term. Shortly before the Capitol was stormed, the right-wing populist called on his supporters in a speech to march to the Capitol and fight “whatever the hell”.
In recent months, Trump has said he wants to focus on the network he co-founded, Truth Social. However, the right-wing populist has a much smaller reach there than is possible on Twitter, Facebook and Co.
