Social Media Sites De-platform Trump After Capitol Insurrection

Social media sites have taken extraordinary steps to de-platform the President of the United States after yesterday's riot at Capitol Hill, citing the President's role on their platforms in inciting "violent insurrection."

Twitter took the first steps yesterday, banning Trump for 12 hours after he posted a video in which he told the members of the mob "We love you" and "you're very special" while urging them to go home and complaining about a stolen election.

The Twitter Safety account made the announcement yesterday that they required the removal of three of Trump's tweets, including his video, and that his account would be suspended for twelve hours. If the tweets were not removed, the account would remain locked. Trump has yet to tweet since the announcement.

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.

— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) January 7, 2021

Mark Zuckerberg followed, announcing that the President's Facebook and Instagram accounts would be suspended at least until Joe Biden is inaugurated on January 20th but possibly indefinitely after that.

“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 wrote. While Facebook has maintained a laissez-faire attitude on Trump's account in the past, Zuckerberg appeared to imply that the insurrection at the Capitol was the final straw.

"The current context is now fundamentally different, involving use of our platform to incite violent insurrection against a democratically elected government," he wrote.

YouTube also announced crackdowns on any channel which posts widespread misinformation about the election, including Trump's channel. YouTube introduced a policy in December that banned such videos, but until today, its policy was to have the videos removed. Now, channels posting such videos will receive a strike that will prevent them from uploading new content.

Calls for restrictions on Trump's social media accounts have been common throughout his Presidency as many feared his incendiary tweets would lead to violence. For many, the move to restrict Trump's social media accounts after the Capitol insurrection and with fourteen days left in his Presidency was too little, too late.

Lot of folks inside FB not exactly happy that it took literal fomenting of insurrection to earn Trump a platform ban (for maybe 14 days?)https://t.co/GSG2fLDOcf

— rat king (@MikeIsaac) January 7, 2021

Donald Trump handed whopping 12-hour Twitter ban after falling foul of the platform’s ‘no incitement of deadly insurrections that threaten national security’ policy.

— Have I Got News For You (@haveigotnews) January 7, 2021

📝STATEMENT📝 – January 6, 2021

Real Facebook Oversight Board: 24 Hour Ban on Trump Too Little Too Late pic.twitter.com/AK1zluqloC

— The Real Facebook Oversight Board (@FBoversight) January 7, 2021