Facebook And Instagram Just Permabanned The US President – The Federalist

Facebook and Instagram are banning President Donald Trump from their platforms beginning Thursday.

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, Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote.

Zuckerberg announced the decision on his own Facebook page, citing Wednesdays tumultuous, destructive events at the Capitol as one of the main reasons for the ban.

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, he wrote. 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.

Zuckerberg continued by claiming that the company needed to remove the president to ensure the peaceful and lawful transition of power to his elected successor, Joe Biden. While the CEO claims the block will last for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete, he left the actual length of the ban open-ended.

Facebook previously announced on Wednesday that it would remove all photos and videos of the Capitol riots because they promoted criminal activity. This decision followed the big tech companys censorship and removal of Trumps video calling for peace and rule of law at the Capitol, claiming it instigated more violence.

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, Zuckerberg wrote in his most recent statement.

Twitter also recently announced a 12-hour lock on Trumps account on Wednesday following a series of now-deleted posts that the company claimsviolated its Civic Integrity policy.

Jordan Davidson is a staff writer at The Federalist. She graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism.

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Facebook And Instagram Just Permabanned The US President - The Federalist