By Sarah E. Needleman
Facebook Inc. placed its harshest restrictions yet on President
Trump, blocking him Thursday from posting indefinitely a day after
the social media giant and its peers removed posts in the wake of
the attack on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob.
Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a post that the
ban on Mr. Trump would last at least two weeks -- through the
inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden -- adding that the risks
of his using the service during this period "are simply too
great."
The ban, which applies to Facebook's flagship blue app and
Instagram, was initially due to last 24 hours when the company on
Wednesday said it removed a video from Mr. Trump that reiterated
unsubstantiated claims the election was stolen and expressed
support for the protesters.
"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," Mr. Zuckerberg
said Thursday.
The Facebook chief separately addressed company employees in an
all-hands meeting Thursday during which he further explained the
decision to implement a longer ban.
Twitter Inc. reinstated Mr. Trump's access to his personal
account, which has more than 88 million followers, after he deleted
three tweets that the company said represented "repeated and severe
violations" of its civic integrity policy.
In his first post since the restriction was lifted, he tweeted a
video condemning the violence at the Capitol and acknowledged that
a new administration would be inaugurated Jan. 20, without
specifically naming Mr. Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala
Harris. "This moment calls for healing and reconciliation," Mr.
Trump said in the video posted around 7 p.m. Eastern time.
Twitter, which initially locked his account Wednesday, warned
that it could enact a permanent suspension if Mr. Trump continued
to violate rules.
White House spokesman Judd Deere criticized the social media
platforms' actions, saying "it's incredibly ironic, yet not
surprising, that when the President spoke to the country at a
critical time Big Tech chose to censor and block him from doing so.
Big Tech is out of control." In a now-deleted video posted
Wednesday on Facebook and Twitter, the president described
supporters as "very special" before calling on them to end the
protest and go home.
Mr. Trump, as well as Republican lawmakers, have criticized the
efforts of social-media companies in the run-up to and following
the Nov. 3, 2020, presidential election, claiming their actions to
censor content have been targeted at stifling conservative
viewpoints.
A YouTube spokesman said Thursday that any channel posting new
videos that spread misinformation about widespread voter fraud
would be penalized, a move that temporarily restricts content from
being uploaded or live-streamed.
Several videos that Mr. Trump posted Wednesday to his channel
deemed to violate company rules were removed, a spokesman said.
YouTube is a unit of Google, which is owned by Alphabet Inc.
Snapchat parent Snap Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.'s Twitch also
placed limits on Mr. Trump's accounts. A Snap spokeswoman said the
president's account was locked indefinitely because the company
"will not amplify voices who incite racial violence and
injustice."
Social-media companies have been facing increased pressure from
some lawmakers and users to take a tougher stance on Mr. Trump,
calling for longer account suspensions or a permanent ban.
Adam Sharp, Twitter's former head of news, government and
elections, on Thursday called for his former employer to follow
Facebook's approach and implement a longer ban on Mr. Trump. In a
series of tweets Mr. Sharp, now chief executive of The National
Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, said he previously
defended Twitter's approach to allow speech from the president even
if it violated rules based on "newsworthiness" but the flagged
posts Wednesday were "uniquely flagrant violations."
Eric Wilson, a Republican digital strategist, said large
social-media companies have for years ignored warnings of the
dangers that their platforms pose to the real world. "They finally
unfortunately saw that yesterday," he said.
He blamed Facebook's algorithms in particular for what led to
Mr. Trump's ban and the violent protests at the Capitol. "It was
clear from all the QAnon slogans and paraphernalia these were
people who had been radicalized by Facebook," he said. Facebook
didn't respond to a request for a response to his comment.
The efforts from large platform operators to fact-check or slow
the spread of Mr. Trump's posts started before the November
election. In May Twitter for the first time applied a fact-checking
notice to a tweet in which the president suggested without
providing evidence that mail-in ballots would lead to voter fraud.
A month later Facebook said it took down posts and ads for Mr.
Trump's re-election campaign because they violated its policy
against "organized hate."
And in August both Twitter and Facebook removed posts by Mr.
Trump that showed a video of him saying children are "almost
immune" from Covid-19, a claim the companies said ran afoul their
rules against harmful misinformation about the coronavirus.
The moves to sanction Mr. Trump extend beyond social media. A
range of business leaders and trade groups denounced his posts
Wednesday and urged for a peaceful transition of power.
Online stores run by the Trump Organization and Trump campaign
were taken offline Thursday by Shopify Inc., an e-commerce software
provider. A Shopify spokeswoman said Mr. Trump violated the
company's policy, which prohibits retailers on the platform from
promoting or supporting organizations or people that promote
violence. Representatives for the Trump Organization, the umbrella
company overseeing the president's real estate and branding
business, didn't immediately respond to requests to comment.
Vipal Monga and Jeff Horwitz contributed to this article.
Write to Sarah E. Needleman at sarah.needleman@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 07, 2021 20:52 ET (01:52 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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