Facebook on Wednesday banned President Trump from posting for 24 hours after finding two of his incendiary posts violated its policy. The move comes after CEO Mark Zuckerberg declared the situation in Washington, D.C., an “emergency” and said the company was considering “additional measures” to keep people safe, according to an internal memo obtained by Axios.
Here is the text of Zuckerberg’s internal post:
This is a dark moment in our nation’s history, and I know many of you are frightened and concerned about what’s happening in Washington, DC. I’m personally saddened by this mob violence — which is exactly what this is. The peaceful transition of power is critical to the functioning of our democracy, and we need our political leaders to lead by example and put the nation first.
As Guy mentioned, our teams are actively monitoring the situation. We removed the recent video of President Trump’s remarks expressing support for the people causing the violence. We are treating this situation as an emergency, and we are implementing additional measures to keep people safe.
Finally, I can confirm that every one of our DC-based employees is currently safe and accounted for. Our security team is continuing to track what’s happening in our nation’s capital and will provide further updates as necessary. If you have any questions in the meantime, please contact [email protected]
24 hours later, social media giant has extended the ban for two weeks. stating it as a means of securing the United states from the harm Mr Trump could cause in these last days. Mark wrote
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. 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.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.
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