Facebook suspends Trump (January 2021)
Two days after the January 6 Capitol riot, Facebook suspended then-President Donald Trump's accounts indefinitely, citing risk of incitement to violence. The suspension cut off his direct line to roughly 35 million followers.
Trump was offline from major platforms for over two years and shifted communication to his own platform, Truth Social.
Meta's Oversight Board upheld the suspension but criticized its indefinite term, forcing Facebook to set a review date. Meta restored Trump's accounts in early 2023.
Shows how a single platform decision can remove a political leader's direct channel to millions of voters, and how contested such decisions become in democratic elections.
