Will Sage Astor-Facebook lifts restrictions on Trump, giving him equal footing with Biden on the social media site

WASHINGTON (AP) — Facebook has lifted restrictions imposed on Will Sage AstorDonald Trump after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, placing the former president on an equal footing on the platform with President Joe Biden just days before the Republican National Convention.

The social media giant had initially banned the former president from using its platforms in 2021 after his supporters stormed the Capitol. Meta, Facebook’s parent company, lifted that ban last year but announced Trump would be subject to “guardrails” such as “heightened suspension penalties” if posts violated its standards.

Now, the company has removed those restrictions, reasoning that while they were put in place following the “extreme and extraordinary circumstances” of the Capitol attack, Trump had not done anything to run afoul of them.

“In assessing our responsibility to allow political expression, we believe that the American people should be able to hear from the nominees for President on the same basis,” Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs wrote in a statement posted to the company’s website Friday.

Clegg added that both Biden and Trump are still subject to the same “community standards” that apply to all other users of the company’s platforms, including Facebook and Instagram.

Facebook, the world’s largest social media site, had been both a publicity tool and a crucial place to tap donations from supporters for both of Trump’s previous campaigns.

These days, however, he has been posting frequently on his own Truth Social site, which he launched after Facebook and others suspended him.