The Facebook and Instagram accounts of US President Donald Trump are blocked indefinitely and for “at least the next two weeks,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Thursday, January 7, in the aftermath of the violence in Washington.
“We believe that allowing the president to continue to use our services during this period poses too great risks”, affirmed Mark Zuckerberg on his account Facebook, after a temporary suspension announced Wednesday evening.
“Therefore, we are extending the blocking of his Facebook and Instagram accounts for an indefinite period and for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is completed,” he said.
A “stolen” election
The certification of Joe Biden’s victory in Congress on Wednesday was interrupted by pro-Trump protesters who invaded the Capitol for several hours in an insurrectionary climate.
The outgoing president addressed the crowd, encouraging his supporters to advance towards Congress, before posting a video in which he repeated without proof that the election had been “stolen” from them. “I love you,” he even said.
Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have generally chosen, until now, to mask or pin the president’s misleading or inflammatory posts with warnings. But Wednesday, they ended up withdrawing some of his remarks, then, in the evening, by suspending his accounts temporarily.
“Encourage a violent insurgency”
“We believe that the public has the right to have the widest possible access to political speeches, even controversial ones,” recalled Mark Zuckerberg, often criticized in recent months for his approach deemed lax by part of civil society.
“But the current context is now fundamentally different, with the use of our platform to encourage a violent insurgency against a democratically elected government,” he detailed.
The Snapchat app also confirmed Thursday that it blocked the profile of the outgoing president. Twitter, which threatened Wednesday to indefinitely suspend the billionaire’s account with 88 million subscribers, did not respond to a request from Agence France-Presse on Thursday. This was the first time the Twitter Network has removed tweets from Donald Trump for non-copyright reasons.
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