Facebook, Instagram block Trump

Facebook Inc. said it would block U.S. President Donald Trump's accounts for at least the next two weeks until the presidential transition is completed and perhaps indefinitely, the most significant sanction of the president by any major social media company.

The decision by chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg comes after Facebook announced on Wednesday it would lock for 24 hours Trump's page, which has 35 million followers.

Tech giants have been scrambling to crack down on the president's claims about the U.S. presidential election after hundreds of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in unrest that resulted in four deaths.

“We believe the risks of allowing the president to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great,” Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post on Thursday. He said the block would also apply to Instagram.

Zuckerberg called the unrest “an insurrection” in an internal all-hands staff meeting on Thursday, according to audio of the call heard by Reuters.

Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the meeting.

Twitter Inc. and Snap Inc. also temporarily locked Trump's accounts on Wednesday. Twitter said its freeze of @realDonaldTrump, which has more than 88 million followers, would last until 12 hours after Trump removes three tweets.

E-commerce platform Shopify also said on Thursday it was shutting down service for stores affiliated with Trump for violations of its “acceptable use” policy, prompting e-commerce sites for both the campaign and the Trump Organization to go offline.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Social media companies have been under pressure to police misinformation about the U.S. election on their platforms, including from the president. Trump and his allies for months have amplified baseless claims of election fraud and the president told protesters to go to Capitol Hill, with both Republicans and Democrats saying he was responsible for the resulting violence.

In a video posted to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube on Wednesday, which was later deleted by the platforms, Trump repeated election fraud claims as he told protesters to go home.

YouTube said Thursday any channel that posts videos with false claims about the election results will be temporarily restricted from uploading or live streaming.

“His decision to use his platform to condone rather than condemn the actions of his supporters at the Capitol building has rightly disturbed people in the U.S. and around the world,” said Zuckerberg.

Civil rights groups including Color of Change have called for social media companies to permanently ban Trump from the platforms.