Washington DC: Amid the violence by Donald Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol and clashed with police, social media giant Facebook has banned US President Donald Trump from its social media platforms indefinitely for at least the next two weeks until the President-elect Joe Biden’s administration takes charge of the White House.
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO explained that the US President has been banned due to his efforts to incite the violence which occurred at the US Capitol on January 6. In a social media post, Zuckerberg stated that the 24-hour-ban which was imposed on Wednesday has been extended because of Trump’s “use of our platform to incite violent insurrection against a democratically elected government.”
Earlier, both Twitter and Facebook had blocked US President Trump’s official accounts for 12 and 24 hours. The social media platforms had given the reasons for policy violations over his tweets and video message which incited the violence at the US Capitol. Later, Zuckerberg owned Instagram also announced a 24-hour ban on Trump’s account.
Explaining his reasoning for the imposition of the indefinite ban, Zuckerberg wrote, “The shocking events of the last 24 hours 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.”
The Facebook CEO added, “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”.
All this happened because, on January 6, thousands of angry Donald Trump supporters mobbed the US Capitol and clashed with the police force which resulted in casualties and multiple injuries. They briefly interrupted a constitutional process to affirm Joe Biden’s victory in the US presidential election of 2020.