Facebook Inc and Instagram will extend a ban on US President Donald Trump's accounts for at least the next two weeks until the presidential transition is completed, Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said.
"The shocking events of the last 24 hours clearly demonstrate that President Donald Trump intends 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.
Following the certification of the election results by Congress, the priority for the whole country must now be to ensure that the remaining 13 days and the days after inauguration pass peacefully and in accordance with established democratic norms.
Over the last several years, we have allowed President Trump to use our platform consistent with our own rules, at times removing content or labeling his posts when they violate our policies. We did this because we believe that the public has a right to the broadest possible access to political speech, even controversial speech. But the current context is now fundamentally different, involving use of our platform to incite violent insurrection against a democratically elected government.
We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great. 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," Zuckerberg said.
The shocking events of the last 24 hours clearly demonstrate that President Donald Trump intends to use his remaining...
Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday, 7 January 2021
Twitter Inc and Snap Inc also temporarily locked Trump's accounts on Wednesday. As the siege of the Capitol escalated, civil rights groups including the Anti-Defamation League and Color of Change called for social media companies to suspend Trump’s accounts permanently.
Social media companies have been under pressure to police misinformation about the US election on their platforms, including from the president. Trump and his allies for months have amplified baseless claims of election fraud, driving the organizing for Wednesday's demonstration.
In a video posted to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube on Wednesday, which was later deleted by the platforms, Trump repeated these claims as he told protesters to go home.
Facebook has previously been blasted by lawmakers and employees for not acting on inflammatory posts from Trump, including those that have been labeled by Twitter.
