Newsman: Face book CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a blog post on Thursday, “Face book will ban President Donald Trump’s account from posting for at least the remainder of his term in office and perhaps “indefinitely,”.
“We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great,” Zuckerberg wrote in the post. “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 decision marks a major escalation by Facebook as it and other platforms have come under intense pressure from advocacy groups and prominent figures to ban Trump following his inflammatory rhetoric encouraging insurrection.
If the latest restrictions hold, Facebook could be the first major platform to remove Trump permanently. Twitter also said that “future violations… will result in permanent suspension of the @realDonaldTrump account.”
First Twitter then Facebook took the extraordinary step on Wednesday of temporarily locking President Donald Trump’s account on their platforms after his supporters stormed the Capitol building to protest the election.
Facebook’s move now raises expectations for Twitter, known for being the president’s preferred social media platform, to follow suit. Twitter has confirmed that Trump deleted several tweets in order to regain his tweeting privileges sometime on Thursday, though the company declined to say when precisely he would be able to tweet again.
Zuckerberg in his blog post Thursday, said Facebook had determined that Trump’s recent posts were “likely” intended to escalate the violence rather than the opposite.
Trump has shown he “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.
Facebook has already described the events surrounding Trump’s posts this week as an emergency. Now, Zuckerberg has finally revealed where Facebook will draw the line for Trump — at nothing less than a deadly assault on Congress.
