President Trump Suspended from Facebook, Temporarily Locked Out of Twitter following Capitol Riot
On Thursday, Facebook Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that President Trump has been suspended “indefinitely” from its platform after a violent riot took place at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.
On Thursday morning, Zuckerberg released a statement explaining that the suspension will last at least two weeks until inauguration day, when Joe Biden takes office.
“We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great,” Zuckerberg argued. “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”
According to The Christian Post, Zuckerberg added that Wednesday’s riot showed that Trump plans to use his remaining time in office “to undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power to his elected successor, Joe Biden.”
“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. We removed these statements yesterday because we judged that their effect — and likely their intent — would be to provoke further violence,” Zuckerberg continued.
After Congress certified the election for Biden, Zuckerberg said that the company’s and the country’s priority is to “ensure that the remaining 13 days and the days after inauguration pass peacefully and in accordance with established democratic norms.”
Meanwhile, Twitter locked Trump’s account for 12 hours after removing several of his tweets that violated their “Civil Integrity Policy”. Additionally, the president faces the threat of a permanent suspension from future violations.
“Future violations of the Twitter Rules, including our Civic Integrity or Violent Threats policies, will result in permanent suspension of the @realDonaldTrump account,” Twitter wrote.
Future violations of the Twitter Rules, including our Civic Integrity or Violent Threats policies, will result in permanent suspension of the @realDonaldTrump account.
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) January 7, 2021
Following Trump’s suspension, he posted several tweets including one post stating that he will not be at Biden’s inauguration.
“To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th”, he wrote on Friday morning.
To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2021
Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Tasos Katopodis/Stringer
Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer. Visit his blog Blessed Are The Forgiven.
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