Voters Are Slightly More Likely Than Not to Back Meta’s Move to Reinstate Trump’s Accounts

More than two years after former President Donald Trump was suspended from Facebook and Instagram for his role in the events of Jan. 6, 2021, Meta Platforms Inc. announced that it would reinstate his accounts — a decision that a plurality of registered voters support, per a new Morning Consult/Politico survey, though there is a stark partisan divide.

Reinstatement of Trump’s Facebook, Instagram accounts mostly divides voters

• Among all U.S. voters, 46% support Meta’s decision to reinstate Trump’s accounts, while 40% are opposed to it. Meanwhile, 31% of voters say they “strongly support” lifting the ban, while 29% “strongly oppose” it.
• About 1 in 5 independents don’t know or have no opinion of the decision, but a 41% plurality of the group opposes Trump’s reinstatement. 
• The divide on the decision falls largely on party lines: Nearly 2 in 3 Democrats oppose Meta’s call to end the Facebook and Instagram bans, with nearly half expressing strong opposition. Nearly 3 in 4 Republicans favor the decision, with more than half saying they strongly support it.

Partisan divides on Trump’s social media bans are nothing new

Trump received a two-year ban from Facebook and Instagram over his role in the insurrection attempt at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The public generally supported the decision at the time, with just over half backing the suspension, according to previous Morning Consult surveys. 

Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, announced last week that the suspension would be lifted “in the coming weeks,” though Trump will face additional suspensions of up to two years if he commits future violations of community guidelines.

In May 2021, Morning Consult found that 2 in 5 voters supported eventually reinstating Trump’s account, marking a slight shift in the public’s view toward the idea of permanently suspending the former president. 

There has been a dramatic partisan divide on the issue that has persisted since social media companies initially banned Trump’s accounts following the insurrection. In the immediate wake of Jan. 6, nearly 7 in 10 Republicans said they believed the suspensions of his social media accounts went too far, compared with just 7% of Democrats who said the same.

Democrats have softened their stance slightly since May 2021, when 80% backed a permanent Facebook suspension. While a strong majority (63%) opposes Trump’s reinstatement in the latest survey, roughly 1 in 4 Democrats support the decision — up from just 9% who supported reinstatement nearly two years ago.

The Jan. 27-29, 2023, survey was conducted among a representative sample of 1,977 registered voters, with an unweighted margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.