Facebook also said it would look for and remove content that praised the storming of the Capitol or encouraged the violence.
Social media giants Twitter and Facebook temporarily suspended US President Donald Trump’s accounts as they scrambled to enforce his unsubstantiated claims about the US presidential election after his supporters stormed the US Capitol in Washington, DC and that Had suspended proceedings.
Twitter went into hiding, calling for the removal of three of Trump’s tweets “as a result of the unprecedented and persistent violent situation in Washington, DC” after the president’s supporters tried to force Congress to block the appointment of President-elect Joe Biden.
While urging his followers to “go home,” Trump also praised the mob as “special” and told them that they were “loved”.
“Future violations of the Twitter rules, including our guidelines on civil integrity or violent threats, will result in the @ realDonaldTrump account being permanently banned,” said a statement from Twitter representatives. The social media handle used by the president is followed by around 88 million people.
Twitter said that Trump’s account would be banned for 12 hours and that the account would remain banned if the offensive tweets were not removed.
In a rapidly evolving series of events, Facebook and YouTube also removed videos posted by the president.
“This is an emergency situation and we are taking appropriate immediate action, including removing President Trump’s video,” said Guy Rosen, vice president of integrity for Facebook, in a tweet.
“We removed it because we believe that it carries the risk of persistent violence rather than reducing it.”
Trump’s account on Instagram with 24.5 million followers remains active. Instagram is owned by Facebook.
Baseless attacks
YouTube also removed a Trump video reiterating his unfounded attacks on the integrity of the election he lost in November.
“As the situation evolves in the United States Capitol, our teams are working to quickly remove live streams and other content that violates our policies, including anti-incitement or graphic violence recordings,” said YouTube spokesman Alex Joseph.
Facebook subsequently said it would look for and remove content that praised the storming of the Capitol or encouraged the violence.
The massive social network said it will also try to turn down additional calls for protests, including peaceful ones, if they violate a curfew in the US capital or attempts to storm Congress, which a Facebook spokesman called “a shame”.
“We prohibit incitement and encourage violence on our platform,” said the spokesman. “We actively review and remove all content that violates these rules.”
Incite violence
Facebook claimed it was in contact with law enforcement officers and continued to ban the QAnon conspiracy group, militarized social movements and hate groups.
A # StormTheCapitol hashtag was blocked on both Facebook and Instagram.
A police officer detains a pro-Trump protester clashing at a rally to contest US Congress certification of the 2020 US presidential election results [Shannon Stapleton/Reuters]Twitter’s early actions were aimed at limiting the reach of offensive tweets from Trump and others.
“We’ve severely restricted exposure to tweets flagged as part of our Civic Integrity Policy due to the risk of violence,” said the Twitter support team.
“This means that these labeled tweets cannot be replied to, retweeted, or liked.”
A Trump video clip posted to the top of his official Twitter account was tagged with a notice that the election fraud allegation was controversial and that the tweet could not be replied to, retweeted or liked “due to the risk of violence”.
The rival social network Parler, which received praise from Trump supporters, featured posts praising the mob attack on the Capitol.
“I hope some of the DemonRat residences are set on fire,” wrote one user.
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