Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat Will Keep Donald Trump Suspended Indefinitely
Evan James
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Big Tech is bringing the ban hammer down on Donald Trump, with Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat vowing to keep the president suspended indefinitely.
Mark Zuckerberg wrote Thursday morning that Facebook and Facebook-owned Instagram will “[extend] the block we have placed on his […] accounts indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete.”
“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,” said Zuckerberg in a post on his personal Facebook page. “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 continued: “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.”
Snapchat has also suspended Trump’s account indefinitely, according to a representative who spoke with TechCrunch.
This approach is slightly different from that of Twitter, which locked Trump’s account for twelve hours after forcing him to remove three tweets that they claimed violated their “Civic Integrity Policy.” Twitter also threatened Trump with a permanent suspension if he violated that policy again.
The fallout over Wednesday’s protest and breach of the Capitol will continue for some time. Even when Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat unlock Trump’s accounts, it would not be shocking if they followed Twitter’s lead and threatened to permanently suspend him if he committed another violation of their “community standards.”
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