Trump to get Facebook account back

Social networking giant Meta announced it would soon reinstate former president Donald Trump's accounts on Facebook and Instagram with "new guardrails," two years after he was banned over the 2021 US Capitol insurrection.

Going forward, the Republican leader - who has declared himself a 2024 presidential candidate - could be suspended for up to two years for each violation of platform policies, Meta said.

It was not clear when or if Trump will return to the platforms.

On his Truth Social platform, the 76-year-old tycoon wrote: "Such a thing should never again happen to a sitting President or anybody else who is not deserving of retribution!" He added that Facebook had lost "billions of dollars in value" in his absence.

Facebook banned Trump - who had 34 million followers - a day after the January 6, 2021 uprising, when a mob of his supporters, incited by his false claims that the election was stolen from him, stormed the US Capitol seeking to overturn Joe Biden's victory.

The American Civil Liberties Union said Meta was making "the right call" by reinstating Trump's accounts. But an advocacy group said it would "refuel Trump's misinformation and extremism engine."