New Research Shows Trump’s ‘Truth Social’ Posts Have Violated Facebook Safety Standards Roughly Twice Per Day

Today, Accountable Tech released new research finding that more than 350 posts from Donald Trump’s “Truth Social” account – the equivalent of two posts per day – would directly violate Facebook’s Community Standards. The new analysis comes one month before Facebook’s January 7th deadline to reevaluate its two-year ban of the former President, and demonstrates Trump’s ongoing and escalating threat to public safety.

Key findings include:

• 116 posts amplifying followers and sympathizers of QAnon – the violent, anti-semitic conspiracy movement tied to real-world violenceand insurrection, labeled by Facebook as a dangerous and militarized social movement and banned on the platform in October 2020.

• 239 posts containing harmful election-related disinformation meant to undermine the integrity of U.S. elections and American democracy.

• Repeated violations of Facebook’s standards that prohibit harassment against marginalized groups, including racial minorities and the transgender community.

• Trump amplified QAnon-related accounts and content 65 times and  pushed false claims of election fraud 30 times in the week following the 2022 midterm elections.

A separate report from Media Matters for America, also being released today, analyzed President Donald Trump’s posts and reports on Truth Social during the week after the 2022 midterm elections and found:

• Trump posted and reposted 197 times — which is an average of roughly 25 posts per day.

• Nearly half of Trump’s posts and reposts on Truth Social (48%) pushed claims of election fraud and amplified QAnon accounts or content.

  • During the time frame, Trump amplified QAnon-related accounts and content 65 times. Of these amplifications, 50 of them were on November 14 and 15, in the leadup to his 2024 campaign announcement.

• Trump also pushed false claims of election fraud 30 times, consistently pushing both generic claims and more specific claims about mail-in ballots and voting machines each day during the timeframe.

In light of this research, Accountable Tech and Media Matters for America today relaunched “Keep Trump Off Facebook,” a campaign urging Meta to adhere to its own safety standards and uphold Facebook’s current ban on Donald Trump. The Keep Trump Off Facebook campaign will include a six-figure digital and TV ad buy that will run nationally and in DC, New York, and San Francisco.

Numerous other  advocacy organizations – including GLAAD, Fair Vote UK and the National Hispanic Media Coalition – have also signed onto the campaign. Facebook – which was recently criticized for preferential treatment of public figures on the platform – has promised to center the threat of “real-world harm” in its reinstatement decision.

“In the two years since Trump used Facebook to incite an insurrection, he has doubled down and only become more dangerous, including his recent call for the ‘termination’ of the Constitution” said Accountable Tech co-founder Nicole Gill. “His behavior online has already provoked additional attacks on public officials and continues to undermine U.S. democracy. If Meta decides to replatform Trump, they will be willfully ignoring their own standards – which have recently come under fire from its own Oversight Board for preferential treatment of public figures on the platform – and handing a flamethrower to an arsonist.”

“We’re entering a terrifying new era of online disinformation and radicalization where homophobia, racism, antisemitism, and violence thrive in the absence of clear and protected community standards,” explained Angelo Carusone, President of Media Matters for America. “If Facebook doesn’t want to descend into the supercharged engine of radicalization and hate that is now Twitter – they must recognize the ongoing threat that Donald Trump’s disinformation poses to our democracy, and keep him off the platform.”

“Trump clearly remains a risk to public safety. On Truth Social, he repeatedly amplifies supporters of the QAnon conspiracy theory, even though it has been linked to real-world violence, including a recently-foiled coup attempt in Germany,” said Kayla Gogarty, deputy research director at Media Matters for America. “If Meta allows him back, it will be giving Trump a green light to push election misinformation, dangerous rhetoric, and extremism to millions of users who would otherwise not have access to his harmful rhetoric.”

Learn more here: KeepTrumpOffFacebook.com

###