President Biden’s reelection campaign held a rally on Friday in protest of Mehta’s decision to lift restrictions on former President Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts.
In a statement first provided to The Hill, the campaign called the move “greedy” and “reckless” and argued that including a former president on a popular platform is an attack on democracy.
“Restoring his access would be like giving the keys to a car to someone you know will drive their car into a crowd and off a cliff,” said Charles Luttwak, a national spokesman for the Biden campaign. “It’s like giving a bullhorn to a true racist who will shout hatred and white supremacy from the rooftops and try to make it mainstream. Make no mistake, this is a direct attack on our security and our democracy.”
“This greedy and reckless decision will enable Trump and his MAGA allies to reach even more Americans with their fundamentally undemocratic and un-American disinformation,” he added.
Meta announced Friday that it had removed additional guardrails on Trump’s account ahead of the 2024 election after he was banned from the company’s platform following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, and then reinstated his account in early 2023 with increased penalties for repeat offenders.
“Donald Trump used his social media platform on January 6th to send a mob into the Capitol in an attempt to overturn the results of an election that he lost fair and square,” Luttwak said. “The lies he spread on this platform incited a mob that attacked police officers, leaving five people dead.”
Mehta also announced that Trump’s account would no longer be subject to additional penalties, adjusting a general protocol for restricting the accounts of public figures during civil unrest.
