United States: Following the mob violence in the US Capitol at Washington, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday informed that President Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts will remain locked for “indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transmission 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. 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, said Mark Zuckerberg in a Facebook post on Thursday evening.
The Facebook CEO further added that “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.
We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great. Therefore, we are extending the block we have placed on his Facebook and Instagram accounts indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete”.
Other social media platforms like Twitter and YouTube had removed the President’s posts on Wednesday and had imposed a 12 hour ban for the President from using the accounts.
4 White House officials have resigned and after the situation at Capitol Hill cooled down a bit, Vice president Mike Pence announced that President-elect Joe Biden has won the presidency.
