Dear John,

After inciting an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, Donald Trump was banned or suspended across numerous social media platforms, including Facebook, taking away a key tool he used to promote the Big Lie and attack our democracy.

But now, for some unexplained reason, Nick Clegg, a top executive at Meta, the company that owns Facebook, is telling reporters that they may soon reinstate Trump’s Facebook account -- perhaps as soon as the end of this year.

The last thing we need is for Trump to have this massive, influential platform back, especially as he has continued to undermine the integrity of our elections on his own failing social media platform, Truth Social.

The power that Facebook wields over public discourse gives the company a huge responsibility to ensure that all of its users, including Donald Trump, follow the community guidelines they have set in place.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other decision-makers at Facebook should continue following the same standards and refuse to reinstate Trump’s account due to the virtually guaranteed likelihood that he will use it to challenge legitimate election results and provoke further violence.

Tell Facebook: Do not overturn your previous decision. Donald Trump is still a threat to democracy and public safety. Keep Trump off Facebook permanently.

When Trump was on mainstream social media, he had tens of millions of followers across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Nearly every single one of his controversial posts trended at the top, giving him one of the largest audiences of any single person and generating breathless non-stop coverage of his every word by the news media.

Trump has not changed his behavior in any way since he was kicked off of Facebook. In fact, he’s only doubled down on and ramped up his rhetoric.

Meanwhile, Trump faces potential indictments in multiple jurisdictions, from New York Attorney General Letitia James, to Fulton County Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis and the U.S. Department of Justice.

And the January 6 hearings revealed every step of Trump’s involvement and leadership in promoting the violence at the Capitol and orchestrating the attempted coup, making it clear Facebook’s original decision to boot him from the platform was absolutely the right one.

Nothing good will come from restoring his voice and reinstating his huge reach. There’s little doubt that in a matter of seconds, he would spread dangerous disinformation that could lead to another January 6th event.

Add your name to the petition now if you agree that Facebook should not reinstate Donald Trump’s account under any circumstances.

With considerations at Facebook already underway to reinstate Trump, now is the time for us to push back.

America does not need Donald Trump reaching hundreds of millions of people with his dangerous lies on Facebook ever, but especially not as we head into the midterm elections -- where 60 percent of voters will have an election denier on their ballot.

Thank you for taking action to protect our democracy at this crucial moment,

Robert Reich
Inequality Media Civic Action