Trump’s Accounts on Twitter and Facebook are Suspended

In the wake of riots by Donald Trump supporters at the US Capitol Building on Wednesday, social media giants Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube responded by putting restrictions on Trump's accounts in an attempt to counter misinformation and the risk of increased violence.

Trump was locked off of his Twitter account for 12 hours and had three of his tweets removed due to violating Twitter’s rules, warning of a permanent ban if he continued to break the platform’s rules. In a video where he addressed his supporters protesting election results outside the US Capitol, he sympathetically urged them to “go home” but still reiterated claims that the election was “stolen”. The mob, shortly after breaching the Capitol, clashed with police, causing the building to go into lockdown.
In line with Twitter’s civic integrity policy, multiple tweets by Trump are now labeled as “manipulating or interfering in elections.” Twitter also disabled certain engagements on his tweets such as replies, shares, and likes.
 

Facebook has also removed the video of Trump addressing his supporters outside the US Capitol. The vice-president of Facebook, Guy Rosen, tweeted that “We removed it because on balance we believe it contributes to, rather than diminishes, the risk of ongoing violence”.

Trump was thereafter blocked from posting on both Facebook and their owned company Instagram for 24 hours, as tweeted by the head of Instagram Adam Mosseri. Facebook claimed that they would continue to monitor and remove posts that praised the breaching of the Capitol.

Trump’s recent video that claimed the election was stolen has also since been removed from Google’s YouTube.