Following the recent events in Washington DC, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced an indefinite ban on Donald Trump from Facebook and Instagram.
While Facebook had banned President Donald Trump from its platforms for 24 hours – following his supporters’ attack on the US Capitol on Wednesday – Zuckerberg now says that the company has banned him “indefinitely”; and the ban will last until after the Inauguration Day to avoid its platform being used by the President to cause any further trouble.
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“The shocking events of the last 24 hours clearly demonstrate that President Donald Trump intends to use his remaining time in office to undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power to his elected successor, Joe Biden,” explained Zuckerberg in a blog post on Thursday.
“We are extending the block we have placed on his Facebook and Instagram accounts indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete.”
We believe the risks of allowing President Trump to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great, so we are extending the block we have placed on his Facebook and Instagram accounts indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks. pic.twitter.com/JkyGOTYB1Z
— Meta Newsroom (@MetaNewsroom) January 7, 2021
Facebook began by removing a video (within one hour of it being posted) from Trump responding to the US Capitol’s violent insurrection by his followers.
In the video, he asked protestors to “go home” but continued his false claims about the 2020 presidential election results. Facebook cycled through three different labels on the video before it was decided that it be removed outright – only an hour after it was posted.
Facebook’s VP of integrity, Guy Rosen, said the Capitol riots were “an emergency situation,” explaining that the video was removed “it contributes to rather than diminishes the risk of ongoing violence.”
https://twitter.com/TwitterSafety/status/1346970431039934464
Other platforms also banned Trump late on Wednesday evening but have stopped short of Facebook’s more drastic action. Twitter blocked three tweets that violated its policies and locked his account for 12 hours.
A tweet from Twitter’s policy account explained that “future violations of the Twitter Rules… will result in permanent suspension of the @realDonaldTrump account.”