Donald Trump has accounts on Facebook and Instagram blocked ‘indefinitely’
Donald Trump has had his accounts on Facebook and Instagram blocked “indefinitely” after failing to condemn Washington DC violence, says Mark Zuckerberg.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed that a block would remain on the Facebook and Instagram accounts of the United States President until a peaceful transition of power is complete because the risks are “simply too great”.
“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,” said Zuckerberg in a post on Thursday.
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“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.”
Facebook and other social networks removed two posts and a video statement uploaded by Donald Trump after the U.S. Capitol building had been stormed, in which the President called for his supporters to “go home”, but also repeated false claims about the integrity of the presidential election.
The big tech company also announced that Trump wouldn’t be able to post for 24 hours after violating two of their policies.
Mark Zuckerberg said the initial ban was done as the statements were “likely” intended to provoke further violence.
“Following the certification of the election results by Congress, the priority for the whole country must now be to ensure that the remaining 13 days and the days after inauguration pass peacefully and in accordance with established democratic norms,” the CEO added.
Zuckerberg went on to add that Facebook had allowed President Trump to use the platform, while removing or labeling content, because the company believe that “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 on Thursday.
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“We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great.”
“Therefore, 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.”
Twitter has locked Trump out of his account for 12 hours and stated that future violations of their policy against inciting violence could result in a permanent suspension from the platform.
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