Nick Clegg, president of global affairs at Meta, said at the time that the company determined Trump is no longer a "serious risk to public safety" and they had "guardrails" in place for his return.
Former President Donald Trump speaks to supporters at a rally to support local candidates on Sept. 3, 2022 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
"To assess whether the serious risk to public safety that existed in January 2021 has sufficiently receded, we have evaluated the current environment according to our Crisis Policy Protocol, which included looking at the conduct of the US 2022 midterm elections, and expert assessments on the current security environment," Clegg wrote. "Our determination is that the risk has sufficiently receded, and that we should therefore adhere to the two-year timeline we set out. As such, we will be reinstating Mr. Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts in the coming weeks. However, we are doing so with new guardrails in place to deter repeat offenses."
The suspension was initially instated following the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, when the platform said it would be booting Trump "indefinitely" for his alleged involvement.
The decision to remove Trump from the platforms drew backlash across the political spectrum and was the first time a sitting president was barred from Facebook. At the time, Trump was also banned from Twitter, YouTube and Snapchat.
Twitter has restored Trump's account, but the former president has not posted from the platform since his suspension.
Following Meta's announcement last month, Trump took to social media to chide Facebook and parent company Meta for banning him in the first place.
"FACEBOOK, which has lost Billions of Dollars in value since ‘deplatforming’ your favorite President, me, has just announced that they are reinstating my account," he wrote shortly after 4 p.m. "Such a thing should never again happen to a sitting President, or anybody else who is not deserving of retribution!"
In the post, the former president also thanked Truth Social, his own platform, for "doing an incredible job" for having him and for their recent success.
Fox News' Lawrence Richard contributed to this article.