Twitter, Facebook Block Donald Trump After Four Die In Capitol Siege

Tom Jowitt,
The US Congress, Senate, Capitol, US government, House of Representatives

President Trump suspended from both Twitter and Facebook for posts to ‘supporters’, after mob storm US Capitol building and people die

US President Donald Trump has been heavily sanctioned by social networking giants Twitter and Facebook, after a day of turmoil in Washington DC.

A mob of armed Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol building and clashed with police on Wednesday. One supporter was shot dead, three others died from medical issues, and firearms and an explosive device were reportedly recovered.

President Trump is being accused by many of stoking the mob, and now he is being punished by both Twitter and Facebook for “I love you” posts, before telling the mob to go home. Trump also repeated false claims about US election fraud.

Twitter suspension

Both Twitter and Facebook responded to his comments, by temporarily blocking him from posting his views by locking him out of his accounts.

They also removed two of his posts, in the strongest move yet by the two firms against the US President.

“As a result of the unprecedented and ongoing violent situation in Washington, D.C., we have required the removal of three @realDonaldTrump Tweets that were posted earlier today for repeated and severe violations of our Civic Integrity policy,” Twitter stated.

And Twitter doubled down and threatened to leave Trump’s accounts locked permanently.

“This means that the account of @realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours following the removal of these Tweets,” it tweeted. “If the Tweets are not removed, the account will remain locked.”

“Future violations of the Twitter Rules, including our Civic Integrity or Violent Threats policies, will result in permanent suspension of the @realDonaldTrump account,” it added.

This could spell the end of Donald Trump on Twitter, as he is well known for not paying much attention to Twitter’s community guidelines.

Facebook suspension

Facebook also announced that Donald Trump will not be able to post on Facebook or Instagram for the next 24 hours.

“We’ve assessed two policy violations against President Trump’s Page which will result in a 24-hour feature block, meaning he will lose the ability to post on the platform during that time,” tweeted the social networking giant.

Meanwhile Facebook VP of Integrity Guy Rosen announced that Donald Trump was being suspended because his posts, on balance, contribute to “rather than diminishes the risk of ongoing violence.”

“…we removed from Facebook and Instagram the recent video of President Trump speaking about the protests and his subsequent post about the election results,” Rosen said. “We made the decision that on balance these posts contribute to, rather than diminish, the risk of ongoing violence.”

“We’re continuing to monitor the situation and will take additional measures if necessary to keep people safe,” he concluded.

YouTube meanwhile has also removed Trump’s video message, and Snapchat has stopped Trump from creating new posts, but it is unclear how long its ban will be.