Facebook reacts to the events in Washington and the provocations of the president: Boss Zuckerberg announces that Trump’s account will remain blocked – at least until the handover.
The outgoing US President Donald Trump remains blocked from Facebook until further notice. Trump’s accounts on the online network and also on the Instagram photo platform should remain blocked for at least two weeks or until power is handed over to his successor Joe Biden, as Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg announced on Thursday. Initially, Facebook had only blocked Trump for 24 hours.
The triggers for the lockdown were Trump’s contributions to the storming of his supporters on the Capitol in Washington on Wednesday, but also his actions yesterday. Zuckerberg wrote: “The shocking events of the past twelve hours made it clear that President Donald Trump intends to use his remaining term in office to undermine the peaceful and legitimate transfer of power to his elected successor, Joe Biden.”
That changes the situation for Facebook, since the platform is being misused to incite violent uprisings against a democratically elected government, Zuckerberg wrote on, adding: The risks of allowing Trump to use Facebook services until he is in office are simply “attributed to” high”.
Trump showed sympathy for rioters
Among other things, Trump had published a video in which he called on his supporters to withdraw from the US parliament building – but at the same time repeated unsubstantiated claims about alleged election fraud. He also showed sympathy for the attackers: “We love you. You are very special.”
In another post on the platforms, Trump wrote: “These are things and events that happen when a holy landslide victory is stolen so suddenly and meanly”. Previously, in a speech to supporters near the Capitol, the President had repeated his legend of electoral fraud and called for a march on Congress. Trump’s supporters then stormed the House of Parliament in Washington while deliberations were under way there to confirm the election victory of Joe Biden.
Twitter had blocked Trump because of these posts for twelve hours – and threatened with a permanent ban for further violations of the rules.