Dear John,

After inciting a violent insurrection, Donald Trump was suspended from Facebook. That suspension is set to expire on Sunday, January 7th -- despite the fact that he's more unhinged and dangerous than ever.

If Facebook doesn’t reinstate the ban, Trump will likely return immediately, once again, putting American lives and our democracy at risk. I repeat: Trump could be back on Facebook immediately.

But let’s be clear, in many ways Trump never even left Facebook. Despite the ban, "Team Trump," a page run by Trump's political group, is still active and has 2.3 million followers. And now, CNN has reported^[1] and Facebook’s parent company Meta has confirmed^[2], that the social media platform will no longer fact-check anything Trump says.

You read that right. Facebook will no longer fact-check anything Trump says and false statements made by Trump can be posted to the platform by others too.

We know what happens when Trump’s lies go unchecked. Last time Trump’s election lies went unchecked on social media, extremists launched the deadly January 6th attack on our Capitol in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election results.

It’s not just Facebook. Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, Google, and Snapchat must all be directly pressured to fact-check Trump, and combat election disinformation, hate speech, harassment, and other harmful content now -- before it’s too late and America faces another attempted coup.

While Facebook and other social media giants may not think that it’s their job to correct falsehoods and unfounded claims from Trump's campaign or other extremists political accounts, January 6th shows why they’re absolutely wrong.

Without it, they are morally, and quite possibly legally, liable for assisting potentially criminal behavior.

We must demand that every social media platform avoids repeating prior mistakes and take serious, substantial steps to hold Trump and all candidates accountable with fact-checking of misleading and factually inaccurate statements.

Social media companies must eliminate misinformation. They cannot provide a massive microphone for spreading hate and violence.

By not fact-checking Trump, or even worse allowing Trump back on the platform without steps in place to stop disinformation and lies, these social media companies are playing straight into the hands of election deniers and others who put our democracy at risk.

Social media platforms must combat election disinformation, hate speech, harassment, and other harmful content. Tell Facebook, and every other major social media platform, fact-check Trump now.

Thank you for everything you’re doing to protect our democracy and stop Donald Trump, and his most dangerous supporters, from spreading disinformation and lies.

Robert Reich
Inequality Media Civic Action

^{[1] Facebook fact-checkers will stop checking Trump after presidential bid announcement
[2] A 2024 reminder: Facebook isn’t fact-checking Trump or any other politician}