Extract from ABC News
Facebook and Instagram will bar US President Donald Trump from posting on its system at least until the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden.
Key points:
- Mr Trump has repeatedly used social media to spread falsehoods
- Facebook have occasionally labelled or even removed some of his posts
- Twitter also locked Mr Trump's accounts for 12 hours
In a post announcing the unprecedented move, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said the risk of allowing Mr Trump to use the platform is too great following the President's incitement of a mob that touched off a deadly riot in the US Capitol on Wednesday.
Mr Zuckerberg says Mr Trump's account will be locked "for at least the next two weeks" but could remain locked indefinitely.
Mr Trump has repeatedly harnessed the power of social media to spread falsehoods about election integrity and the results of the presidential race.
Platforms like Facebook have occasionally labelled or even removed some of his posts, but the overall response has failed to satisfy a growing number of critics who say the platforms have enabled the spread of dangerous misinformation.
Mr Trump's tweets have regularly been marked as containing misleading or fraudulent information ever since it became apparent he may lose the election to Mr Biden.
In light of Wednesday's riot Mr Zuckerberg said a more aggressive approach is needed.
"The current context is now fundamentally different, involving use of our platform to incite violent insurrection against a democratically elected government," he wrote.
Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, will also block Trump's ability to post on its platform "indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks," Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram tweeted Thursday.
Google-owned YouTube also removed Mr Trump's video message to rioting supporters, but the company didn’t immediately respond to questions about whether it was taking additional actions.
The most recent videos posted to Mr Trump's YouTube account on were from a day earlier and mostly featured Fox News and C-SPAN coverage of congressional hearings.
Twitter also locked Mr Trump's accounts for 12 hours after he repeatedly posted false accusations about the integrity of the election. That suspension was set to expire sometime Thursday; the President had not yet resumed tweeting as of late Thursday morning.
A company spokesman said the company could take further action as well.
"We're continuing to evaluate the situation in real time, including examining activity on the ground and statements made off Twitter," the spokesman said.
"We will keep the public informed, including if further escalation in our enforcement approach is necessary."
Meanwhile, the platforms continued to face criticism from users who blamed them, in part, for creating an online environment that led to Wednesday's violence.
"Today is the result of allowing people with hate in their hearts to use platforms that should be used to bring people together," singer Selena Gomez wrote on Twitter to her 64 million followers.
A message left with the White House on Thursday morning was not immediately returned.
AP
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