President Trump’s Twitter and Facebook accounts were locked hours after an angry mob stormed the U.S. Capitol resulting in one person being shot to death by police.
Both platforms said that Trump violated their policies, Twitter warned of a permanent suspension after removing three tweets, one of which was a video where he repeated unfounded claims of election fraud.
“Future violations of the Twitter rules, including our Civic Integrity or Violent Threats policies, will result in permanent suspension of the @realDonaldTrump account,” Twitter said.
Both companies have taken steps to curb misinformation by placing fact-checking disclaimers on Trump’s tweets, those measures have only intensified since Election Day.
“This is an emergency situation, and we are taking appropriate emergency measures, including removing President Trump’s video,” tweeted Guy Rosen, Facebook’s vice president of integrity. “We removed it because on balance we believe it contributes to rather than diminishes the risk of ongoing violence.”
Facebook condemned the violence at the Capitol and promised to take steps to moderate content related to the situation. Those measures included removing videos and photos from those that stormed the Capitol. Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, removed similar content.
Facebook said it would be blocking the president’s account from posting for 24 hours due to two policy violations.
Twitter’s safety team put out a statement saying the “calls to violence” were a violation of its rules.
“In regard to the ongoing situation in Washington, D.C., we are working proactively to protect the health of the public conversation occurring on the service and will take action on any content that violates the Twitter Rules,” the statement said.
