Donald Trump blocked from posting on Facebook and Twitter
7 January 2021, 08:54
Twitter warned that further violations of its policies will lead to the ‘permanent suspension’ of his account.
Twitter and Facebook have temporarily locked Donald Trump’s accounts after he addressed supporters who stormed the US Capitol.
The US president earlier posted a video to protesters urging them to go home, while also repeating claims of election fraud and telling them “we love you”.
Twitter responded by locking his account for the first time and demanded he remove tweets excusing violence, while also threatening him with “permanent suspension” from the platform.
Facebook also announced it had assessed two “policy violations” on Mr Trump’s page and had blocked him from posting for 24 hours.
The president’s supporters attacked the US Capitol building on Wednesday and clashed with police.
Twitter Safety posted: “As a result of the unprecedented and ongoing violent situation in Washington, DC, we have required the removal of three @realDonaldTrump Tweets that were posted earlier today for repeated and severe violations of our Civic Integrity policy.
“This means that the account of @realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours following the removal of these Tweets. If the Tweets are not removed, the account will remain locked.
“Future violations of the Twitter Rules, including our Civic Integrity or Violent Threats policies, will result in permanent suspension of the @realDonaldTrump account.”
Twitter had earlier added a warning to the outgoing president’s video, which read: “This claim of election fraud is disputed, and this tweet can’t be replied to, retweeted, or liked due to a risk of violence.”
This is an emergency situation and we are taking appropriate emergency measures, including removing President Trump's video. We removed it because on balance we believe it contributes to rather than diminishes the risk of ongoing violence.
— Guy Rosen (@guyro) January 6, 2021
Mr Trump’s since-deleted video was viewed more than 10 million times in less than an hour on Twitter.
Facebook said in a statement posted on Twitter: “We’ve assessed two policy violations against President Trump’s Page which will result in a 24-hour feature block, meaning he will lose the ability to post on the platform during that time.”
Facebook’s vice president of integrity Guy Rosen, meanwhile, tweeted that Mr Trump’s video had been removed entirely from the platform.
“We removed it because on balance we believe it contributes to rather than diminishes the risk of ongoing violence,” he said.
