Former US president Donald Trump will be allowed back on to Meta's social networks Facebook and Instagram after a long suspension, the company said on Wednesday.
Mr Trump was indefinitely suspended for posts that were considered to be incendiary after a mob of his supporters stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Other popular social networks such as Twitter, Snapchat and Reddit also barred him.
“We will be ending the suspension of Mr Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts in the coming weeks,” Nick Clegg, Meta president of global affairs.
The move is a boon for Mr Trump, who is now running for president for the third time.
It brings scrutiny by critics who believe the political leader has not been held accountable for his role in the insurrection.
Mr Trump's return "presents intensified threats to civil society and an existential threat to US democracy as a whole" and will "turn Facebook and Instagram into a cesspool of hate, violence and extremism", Media Matters for America president Angelo Carusone said.
Mr Clegg said Mr Trump would be under intense oversight for possible breaches of Facebook and Instagram policy.
“In light of his violations, he now also faces heightened penalties for repeat offences — penalties that will apply to other public figures whose accounts are reinstated from suspensions related to civil unrest under our updated protocol,” he said.
Meta believes the public should be able to hear from politicians online, and free speech advocates agree.
“This is the right call—not because the former president has any right to be on the platform but because the public has an interest in hearing directly from candidates for political office," said Jameel Jaffer, executive director at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University
If Mr Trump breaches any policies again, he could be suspended for as long as two years again, Mr Clegg said.
In November, Mr Trump's Twitter account was reinstated after a poll by Elon Musk, which supported the former president's return to what was once his most frequently used platform.
He has yet to return to the platform even though he has nearly 88 million followers on Twitter.
But Mr Trump has a contractual obligation to his Truth Social network, where he has accumulated 4.84 million followers since its launch.
A look at former president Donald Trump's Truth Social feed — in pictures
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The lowdown
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How Voiss turns words to speech
The device has a screen reader or software that monitors what happens on the screen
The screen reader sends the text to the speech synthesiser
This converts to audio whatever it receives from screen reader, so the person can hear what is happening on the screen
A VOISS computer costs between $200 and $250 depending on memory card capacity that ranges from 32GB to 128GB
The speech synthesisers VOISS develops are free
Subsequent computer versions will include improvements such as wireless keyboards
Arabic voice in affordable talking computer to be added next year to English, Portuguese, and Spanish synthesiser
Partnerships planned during Expo 2020 Dubai to add more languages
At least 2.2 billion people globally have a vision impairment or blindness
More than 90 per cent live in developing countries
The Long-term aim of VOISS to reach the technology to people in poor countries with workshops that teach them to build their own device
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Remaining Fixtures
Wednesday: West Indies v Scotland
Thursday: UAE v Zimbabwe
Friday: Afghanistan v Ireland
Sunday: Final
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Who was Alfred Nobel?
The Nobel Prize was created by wealthy Swedish chemist and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel.
- In his will he dictated that the bulk of his estate should be used to fund "prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind".
- Nobel is best known as the inventor of dynamite, but also wrote poetry and drama and could speak Russian, French, English and German by the age of 17. The five original prize categories reflect the interests closest to his heart.
- Nobel died in 1896 but it took until 1901, following a legal battle over his will, before the first prizes were awarded.
