US President Donald Trump’s Twitter and Facebook accounts have been locked due to “policy violations,” with Twitter threatening an outright ban unless he scrubs select posts, even as he called for calm amid riots in the capital.
Twitter cited the “unprecedented and ongoing violent situation in Washington,DC” to delete three of Trump’s tweets posted on Wednesday, in which the president called for his supporters to stand down and go home – but also repeated his claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen and plagued by fraud.
That represented “repeated and severe violations of our Civic Integrity policy,” Twitter announced on Wednesday evening.
As a result, Trump’s personal account will remain locked for 12 hours after he deletes the three offending tweets – or indefinitely, if he chooses not to, the company announced. Future violations of their policies will result in “permanent suspension” of the account.
Facebook and YouTube have also deleted the video message Trump sent on Wednesday, seeking to talk down several hundred protesters who broke into the Capitol building and briefly occupied the chambers of the Senate, House of Representatives and congressional offices.
Facebook’s vice president of integrity, Guy Rosen, deemed the situation an “emergency,” saying the platform pulled the video because it “contributes to, rather than diminishes, the risk of ongoing violence.”
The company later noted that it had suspended the president’s account for 24 hours, pointing to two “policy violations” against his page. He will be barred from posting for the duration of the ban.
The intrusion came just as the joint session of Congress was addressing objections by several Republican lawmakers to certifying Electoral College votes that would make Democrat Joe Biden the next US president. Lawmakers were evacuated to nearby Fort McNair, and many have since cited the unrest as the reason to speedily approve Biden’s election.
Also on rt.com ‘Go home & remember this day forever!’ Twitter, Facebook & YouTube wipe Trump’s ‘mixed message’ to supporters who stormed CongressTrump’s last tweet, which was first labeled as “risk of violence” and then deleted by the platform, urged his supporters to “go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!”
However, it also said that “these are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long.” This apparently violated the policy of all social media platforms that the 2020 election results are not to be questioned.
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