Twitter, Facebook temporarily lock Donald Trump's accounts amid Capitol assault
Twitter and Facebook accounts of outgoing United States President Donald Trump were temporarily locked by the tech giants on Wednesday in wake of the chaos that took over the Capitol just as a ceremonial session of Congress was underway. The incident in Washington, DC, put the country to shame with leaders both within the US and outside slamming it. Here are more details.
While the lawmakers gathered inside to certify President-elect Joe Biden's historic win, hundreds of Trump's supporters wreaked havoc outside Capitol to disrupt the counting of Electoral College votes. Eventually, they managed to enter the building, waving pro-Trump flags in the face of cops, indicating that they won't accept the election's outcome. After hours of bedlam, the Capitol was secured and the session reconvened.
As chaos descended in the heart of the US capital, tech giants took steps to control misinformation. Twitter, where the Republican has 88 million followers, hid and sought the removal of three of his tweets citing the "unprecedented and ongoing violent situation in Washington, DC." Trump asked his supporters to "go home" while also calling them "special" and declaring that they were "loved."
"Future violations of the Twitter Rules, including our Civic Integrity or Violent Threats policies, will result in permanent suspension of the @realDonaldTrump account, (sic)" Twitter warned, adding that the account will be locked for 12 hours but "will remain locked" if the said tweets aren't removed.
Facebook and YouTube followed suit. Facebook barred Trump from posting anything on his profile for 24 hours after judging that two of his posts violated policies. "This is an emergency situation and we are taking appropriate emergency measures, including removing President Trump's video," Facebook Vice-President of Integrity Guy Rosen tweeted. The official said the video contributes to the ongoing violence, rather than diminishing it.
Later, Facebook also said it would look for and remove posts that celebrated the violence. YouTube deleted a video of Trump where he repeated his allegations about the election being stolen away. "As the situation at the United States Capitol Building unfolds, our teams are working to quickly remove live streams and other content that violates our policies," said YouTube Spokesperson Alex Joseph.
We are locking President Trump’s Instagram account for 24 hours as well. https://t.co/HpA79eSbMe
— Adam Mosseri 😷 (@mosseri) January 7, 2021
The action taken by tech giants was deemed not enough by many. It was argued that the platforms gave Trump undue space to dispel misinformation. Chris Sacca, who had invested in Twitter, wrote a pointed tweet slamming CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook's founder Mark Zuckerberg. "You've got blood on your hands, Jack and Zuck. For four years you've rationalized this terror, (sic)" he tweeted.
You’ve got blood on your hands, @jack and Zuck. For four years you’ve rationalized this terror. Inciting violent treason is not a free speech exercise. If you work at those companies, it’s on you too. Shut it down.
— Chris Sacca 🇺🇸 (@sacca) January 6, 2021
Meanwhile, Zuckerberg told Facebook employees that he was distressed by the mob violence, NYT reports. "The peaceful transition of power is critical to the functioning of our democracy, and we need our political leaders to lead by example and put the nation first," he wrote in an internal memo. The mindless violence has taken the lives of four people, the latest reports said.
