The same day former President Donald Trump was reinstated on YouTube, he returned to Facebook with a simple announcement: “I’m back!” The text is accompanied by a 12-second video showing Trump with then-Vice President Mike Pence after his election in 2016. “Sorry to keep you waiting. Complex business. Complicated,” Trump says in the clip. Trump’s first Facebook post in two years came hours after Alphabet Inc.’s GOOGL, +1.30% GOOG, +1.38% Google said it lifted restrictions on Trump’s YouTube channel, which has more than 2.6 million followers. “As of today, Donald J. The Trump channel is no longer banned and the ability to upload new content has been restored. We have carefully assessed the continued risk of real-world violence, balancing it with the importance of preserving the opportunity for voters to hear equally from key national candidates in the run-up to the election. This channel will be subject to our policies, just like any other channel on YouTube,” YouTube vice president of public policy Leslie Miller said in a statement. As of Friday, Trump will be allowed to post videos on his channel as well as buy YouTube ads for his campaign, as long as they follow YouTube’s advertising policies. YouTube suspended Trump’s account in January 2021, several days after the January 6 uprising, because the account violated the company’s policies for posting content that incites violence. Trump’s return to YouTube, Meta Platforms Inc.’s META, -4.55% Facebook, in January and Elon Musk’s Twitter, in November, to restore the former president to that digital platform, while boosting his 2024 presidential bid, comes after Trump’s return to YouTube. Trump has yet to post on Instagram or Twitter, instead continuing to rely on his account on Truth Social, the social-media platform he launched in 2021.
