Social media firms Twitter and Facebook have decided to suspend US President Donald Trump from their platforms following attacks of his supporters on the US Capitol.
The suspension of President Trump from Twitter and Facebook comes after he repeatedly made false claims of election fraud, as well as posting a video message saying "I love you" to supporters attacking the US Capitol and calling them "patriots".
Attacks on statehouses
President Trump's supporters rallied at statehouses across the U.S. to protest against the counting of Electoral College votes.
For months, the outgoing Republican president falsely claimed that there was election fraud. Trump supporters stormed statehouses in Georgia, Washington, Ohio, Michigan, California, Kansas, Colorado, Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, and other states.
Trump urged Capitol Hill protesters to “go home” through a video on Twitter. However, he did not address demonstrations at state buildings. Still, he repeatedly claims the election was stolen from him.
"It is unimaginable that we have people in our state & country who are undermining public safety, attacking law enforcement, & breaking into gov’t buildings. This is not the GA way & it’s not the way of our country. These activities are a disgrace & quite honestly un-American," Georgia GOP Gov. Brian Kemp said on Twitter.
President-elect Joe Biden condemned the protests at Capitol and called on President Donald Trump to urge rioters to leave.
Biden, who will officially become president on January 20, expressed his dismay at the rioters and asked law enforcement to stop the rally in Washington.
"At this hour, our democracy is under unprecedented assault, unlike anything we’ve seen in modern times," the president-elect said from Wilmington, Delaware. "Let me be very clear: The scenes of chaos at the Capitol do not reflect the true America, do not represent who we are."
"I’m genuinely shocked and saddened that our nation, so long a beacon of hope and light for democracy, has come to such a dark moment," he added. "America’s about honor, decency, respect, tolerance. That’s who we are. That’s who we’ve always been."
Biden also urged Trump to make a public announcement asking the rioters to leave the Capitol as soon as possible.
Twitter and Facebook suspensions
According to Twitter, it removed three tweets from Trump for "severe violations of our Civic Integrity policy" and said the president's account would be permanently locked if the tweets were not removed.
The social media company continued: "Future violations of the Twitter Rules... will result in permanent suspension of the @realDonaldTrump account". Trump's account now states that those tweets are "no longer available because [they] violated" Twitter's rules.
Twitter explained: We have been significantly restricting engagement with Tweets labelled under our Civic Integrity Policy due to the risk of violence".
Facebook and Instagram also banned Trump from posting for 24 hours while YouTube removed the video where he told protesters "I love you" and called people attacking the Capitol complex as "patriots".
YouTube said the video was removed because it "violated policies on spreading election fraud".
"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," Facebook stated.
