Twitter unlocked the president's @realDonaldTrump Twitter
account, which has 88 million followers, after Trump removed three
rule-breaking tweets. His first post back on the platform featured a video in
which he said he was focused on a peaceful transition of power and which was
viewed 1.4 million times within 15 minutes of posting.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2021
Tech companies have been scrambling to crack down on the
president's baseless claims about the November 3 US presidential election after
hundreds of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol in unrest that resulted in
four deaths.
Trump's accounts remain blocked on Facebook and Instagram
for at least two weeks and perhaps indefinitely. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg
said in a Thursday post that the risks of allowing him to use the platform were
"simply too great."
Facebook's move marked the most significant sanction of the
president by a major social media company. Live-streaming platform Twitch and
photo-sharing service Snap issued similar bans.
"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," Zuckerberg said in his Facebook post.
White House spokesman Judd Deere said in response that the
companies had censored the president at a critical time for the country.
"Big Tech is out of control," he said.
Zuckerberg said the block on Trump's Facebook page, which
has 35 million followers, would last at least until Biden takes office on
January 20.
At an all-hands meeting on Thursday, Zuckerberg told
employees he considered it important political leaders "lead by example
and make sure we put the nation first."
"What we've seen is that the president has been doing
the opposite of that and instead fanning the flames of those who think they
should turn to violence to overturn the election outcome," he said,
according to audio of the remarks heard by Reuters.
Social media companies have been under pressure to police
misinformation about the US election on their platforms, including from the
president. Trump and his allies for months have amplified baseless claims of
election fraud and the president told protesters to go to Capitol Hill, with
both Republicans and Democrats saying he was responsible for the resulting
violence.
Amazon's Twitch disabled Trump's channel due to the
"extraordinary circumstances and the president's incendiary
rhetoric," it said. A spokeswoman said the company would reassess Trump's
account after he leaves office.
E-commerce platform Shopify shut service for stores
affiliated with Trump for violations of its "acceptable use" policy,
prompting e-commerce sites for both the campaign and the Trump Organization to
go offline.
Blocks 'long overdue'
Facebook's decision follows bans in recent years of some
government officials in India and Myanmar for promoting violence. A Facebook
spokesman said the company had never before blocked a current president, prime
minister or head of state.
In a video posted to Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube on
Wednesday, which was later deleted by the platforms after garnering millions of
views, Trump repeated election fraud claims as he told protesters to go home.
Civil rights groups including Color of Change have called
for social media companies to ban Trump permanently from the platforms, where
he has repeatedly violated policies.
The Anti-Defamation League praised Facebook's move, calling
it "an obvious first step," while the NAACP in a statement said the
move was a "long overdue" gesture that "rings hollow."
Facebook has drawn criticism for exempting politicians'
posts and advertisements from its third-party fact-checking programme and
repeatedly said it does not want to be "the arbiter of truth." The
company has in recent months started labeling some of Trump's statements but
faced questions about why it had not acted sooner against violent rhetoric that
proliferated in the past few weeks as organisers planned the rally online.
Democratic Representative Bennie Thompson, who chairs the
House Homeland Security Committee, said in a statement he was "deeply
frustrated that it took a group of domestic terrorists storming the
Capitol" for Facebook to take action and wondered "if the decision
was an opportunistic one, motivated by the news of a Democratically controlled
Congress."
Democratic Senator Mark Warner, incoming chairman of the
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said the social media actions did not
go far enough.
"These platforms have served as core organising
infrastructure for violent, far right groups and militia movements for several
years now, helping them to recruit, organise, coordinate and in many cases
(particularly with respect to YouTube) generate profits from their violent,
extremist content," he said in a statement.
YouTube, which is owned by Alphabet's Google, said Thursday
any channel that posts videos with false claims about the election results will
be temporarily restricted from uploading or live streaming.
YouTube did not respond to a question about whether it would
ban Trump's account in the same manner as Facebook, while a Twitter spokesman
said it was continuing to "evaluate the situation in real time, including
examining activity on the ground and statements made off Twitter." He said
Twitter would inform the public if an "escalation" in its approach
was necessary.
© Reuters
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