President Donald Trump has relied on Facebook, Instagram and especially Twitter for his primary mode of communication to push his messages to the masses of Americans who support him.
However, after the events that transpired on January 6 in Washington D.C., as the Capitol Building was breached during a massive, pro-Trump demonstration that was otherwise mostly peaceful throughout the day, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg dropped the bombshell announcement that many believed was inevitable: the “indefinite” banning of the president from his social media networks.
Zuckerberg made the announcement mid-morning on Thursday in a Facebook post. Below, you can read Zuckerberg’s announcement, which explains the reasons why the company has decided to de-platform the president.
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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.
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Following the certification of the election results by Congress, the priority for the whole country must now be to ensure that the remaining 13 days and the days after inauguration pass peacefully and in accordance with established democratic norms.
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.
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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.
The news follows Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey removing several of the president’s tweets from Wednesday and slapping Trump with a 12-hour ban.
Many believe that Twitter will ultimately take the same action against the president, as far as banning him for the remainder of time he has in the White House, which as of today is 13 days.
As of this writing, there are rumors that the president has already joined competing, conservative-friendly social media network Parler, however, it has not been confirmed as of yet. It is, however, the most logical solution for the president to join Parler and be able to reach his tens of millions of supporters.
This story will be updated as the situation warrants.
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