Facebook and Twitter locked President Trump’s account after his remarks about the unrest at the Capitol Building.
Twitter locked the President’s account as social media giants Facebook and YouTube removed a video of Trump addressing his supporters amid the violence at the U.S. Capitol. (see video below)
It was among a couple of tweets that had been flagged by Twitter that day.
Twitter explained their reasoning behind its decision to lock his account in a series of tweets:
As a result of the unprecedented and ongoing violent situation in Washington, D.C., we have required the removal of three @realDonaldTrump Tweets that were posted earlier today for repeated and severe violations of our Civic Integrity policy.
This means that the account of @realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours following the removal of these Tweets. If the Tweets are not removed, the account will remain locked.
Future violations of the Twitter Rules, including our Civic Integrity or Violent Threats policies, will result in permanent suspension of the @realDonaldTrump account.
Our public interest policy — which has guided our enforcement action in this area for years — ends where we believe the risk of harm is higher and/or more severe.
We’ll continue to evaluate the situation in real-time, including examining activity on the ground and statements made off Twitter. We will keep the public informed, including if further escalation in our enforcement approach is necessary.
Facebook, YouTube and Twitter removed the video below in which he addressed supporters while people stormed the U.S. Capitol building.
In the video, Trump urged protesters to “go home” and added that he understood their “pain” and spoke of election fraud.
YouTube said in a statement that the video violated “policies regarding content that alleges widespread fraud or errors changed the outcome.” Facebook said: “The violent protests in the Capitol today are a disgrace. We prohibit incitement and calls for violence on our platform. We are actively reviewing and removing any content that breaks these rules.”
