Twitter Silences Trump with Temporary Account Lock, Facebook and YouTube Purge Posts
Blaming President Donald Trump for a massive security breach at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, Big Tech responded to the chaotic protests and rioting by muzzling the president.
Twitter zapped three tweets into limbo and suspended his account for 12 hours, according to NBC News. Among the tweets that the social media giant decided could not be shown was one from the president trying to quell the violence at the Capitol.
The suspension had expired as early Tuesday morning. However, there were no new tweets posted as of mid-morning Eastern Time.
Facebook and YouTube also took down that video, in which Trump repeated his contention that the election was irreparably marred by fraud and misconduct, with YouTube claiming in a statement that it violated “policies regarding content that alleges widespread fraud or errors changed the outcome.”
Twitter said that if Trump further violates its rules, the company could further suspend the president’s personal Twitter account, which Trump has used as the major vehicle to communicate with his millions of supporters.
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. https://t.co/k6OkjNG3bM
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) January 7, 2021
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
Facebook put Trump’s account into social media timeout for 24 hours for allegedly violating its policies and explained its action in a blog post written by Guy Rosen, the company’s vice president for integrity, and Monika Bickert, its vice president for global policy management.
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“We are appalled by the violence at the Capitol today. We are treating these events as an emergency,” they wrote.
“For those of you who are wondering, here are the actions we’re taking: First, we have been searching for and removing the following content: Praise and support of the storming of the US Capitol;” “Calls to bring weapons to locations across the US — not just in Washington but anywhere in the US — including protests;” Incitement or encouragement of the events at the Capitol, including videos and photos from the protestors. At this point they represent promotion of criminal activity which violates our policies;” “Calls for protests — even peaceful ones — if they violate the curfew in DC;” “Attempts to restage violence tomorrow or in the coming days.”
“As a part of this, we removed from Facebook and Instagram the recent video of President Trump speaking about the protests and his subsequent post about the election results. We made the decision that on balance these posts contribute to, rather than diminish, the risk of ongoing violence,” the post said.
Facebook also said it will ensure that anyone claiming Trump won the election will have a label on their posts.
“Next, we’re updating our label on posts across our platforms that attempt to delegitimize the election results,” Facebook said. “The new text reads: ‘Joe Biden has been elected President with results that were certified by all 50 states. The US has laws, procedures, and established institutions to ensure the peaceful transfer of power after an election.'”
The post also said Facebook was being vigilant about policing right-wing groups.
“In recent days and weeks, we have also taken enforcement action consistent with our policy banning militarized social movements like the Oathkeepers and the violence-inducing conspiracy theory QAnon. We’ve also continued to enforce our ban on hate groups including the Proud Boys and many others. We’ve already removed over 600 militarized social movements from our platform,” the post said.
The Anti-Defamation League wants Trump permanently barred from social media, according to CNN.
“President Trump has a responsibility to call for an end to this violence and unrest that he has sowed. His campaign of disinformation is a clear and present danger to our democracy,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said.
“But until such time as that happens, social media companies should suspend his accounts ASAP as they would do for anyone else advocating disinformation and promoting violence. It’s time.”
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
