Facebook Joins Twitter In Locking Donald Trump’s Account Over His Posts On Capitol Chaos – Update

Denise Petski
·3 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

UPDATED, 5:45 PM: Facebook has followed Twitter in locking President Donald Trump’s account in the wake of his remarks about today’s unrest at the Capitol Building.

PREVIOUSLY, 4:34 PM: In an unprecedented move, Twitter today locked President Donald Trump’s account. The news comes after the social media giant, Facebook and YouTube removed a video of Trump addressing his supporters amid today’s violence at the U.S. Capitol.

It was among several tweets that had been flagged by Twitter today.

The social platform explained the reasoning behind its decision to lock the account in a series of tweets:

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.

This means that the account of @realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours following the removal of these Tweets. 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.

Our public interest policy — which has guided our enforcement action in this area for years — ends where we believe the risk of harm is higher and/or more severe.

We’ll continue to evaluate the situation in real time, including examining activity on the ground and statements made off Twitter. We will keep the public informed, including if further escalation in our enforcement approach is necessary.

The move to lock Trump’s account followed Facebook, YouTube and Twitter’s removal of his video in which he addressed supporters while a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol building. In the video, Trump had urged protesters to “go home” but added that he understood their “pain” and continued to tout his debunked claims of election fraud.

“This is an emergency situation and we are taking appropriate emergency measures, including removing President Trump’s video,” Guy Rosen, Facebook’s VP Integrity, said in a tweet. “We removed it because on balance we believe it contributes to rather than diminishes the risk of ongoing violence.”

YouTube said in a statement that the video violated “policies regarding content that alleges widespread fraud or errors changed the outcome.” Facebook said: “The violent protests in the Capitol today are a disgrace. We prohibit incitement and calls for violence on our platform. We are actively reviewing and removing any content that breaks these rules.”

Erik Pedersen contributed to this report.

Best of Deadline

Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.