Facebook & Instagram boot Trump from sites
Facebook and Instagram will block President Trump’s accounts for at least until the end of his presidency, and perhaps “indefinitely,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Thursday.
“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,” Zuckerberg said in a statement posted in on Facebook.
“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 US and around the world,” Zuckerberg wrote. “We removed these statements yesterday because we judged that their effect — and likely their intent — would be to provoke further violence.
“Following the certification of the election results by Congress, the priority for the whole country must m now be to ensure that the remaining r 13 days and the days after a inauguration pass peacefully and a in accordance with establish democratic d norms.”
Facebook operates both the Facebook F and Instagram social media m services.
The ban came the day after pro-Trump rioters laid siege to the U.S. Capitol.
Trump’s failure to quickly call for an end to the chaos — and his comments during a now-removed Twitter video where he told rioters, “I love you, you’re special” — led to Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms blocking his accounts.
Twitter locked Trump out of his accounts for at least 12 hours, the company said at 7:02 p.m. Wednesday.
“If the Tweets are not removed, the account will remain locked,” the post said.
It was unclear Thursday whether Trump’s Twitter account had been reactivated. Trump last tweeted on Wednesday.
In his statement, Zuckerberg said Facebook has allowed Trump to use its platform over the last few years because the company believes “the public has a right to the broadest possible access to political speech, even controversial speech.”
“But the current context is now fundamentally different, involving use of our platform to incite violent insurrection against a democratically elected government,” he said.