After the recent riots in the Washington D.C, United States which left five people dead and many injured, Facebook has suspended the account of former US President Donald J. Trump to avoid any further ruckus by his followers. In an internal memo, Facebook told its more than 56,000 employees that ‘on the side of caution and avoid backlash, global security is encouraging everyone to avoid wearing or carrying Facebook-branded items at this time and not show in any way that they work for the company’, according to The Information.
On January 6th, 2021, the deadly rampage occurred on the Capitol Hill, Facebook closed Trump’s account, with over 35 million followers, regarding the recent statement given by the former president in favor of his supporters, to steer clear of any commotion being caused on the day of the inauguration of Joe Biden on January 20th.
The FBI has also warned all 50 capital states of armed protests and the huge number of groups preparing to storm local a federal government courthouses and administrative buildings, bearing in mind the ‘Million Militia March’ being planned if Trump is removed before the inauguration of Joe Biden, according to The Washington Post.
On the day after the riot, a post by Founder and CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg said, ‘Trump’s decision to use Facebook for overlooking the actions of his supporters and not condemning it, has caused disturbance among the people. We judged that their effect and intent would be to provoke further violence’. He further said that involving our platform to incite any kind of violent insurrection against a democratically elected government will not be accepted, and there is a great risk in allowing him to continue using the social media platforms.
With 2.7 billion active users, Facebook said it would remove all the posts, pages, groups, and events containing the phrase and hash tags “stop the steal” supporting the president's false and baseless claims of election fraud. Few other apps have also taken strong action including Instagram, Twitter, and Amazon Web Services, which has stopped hosting the Parler, where users allegedly posted threats against lawmakers and activists. Amazon also told its employees to ‘be vigilant and be safe” and ‘to quickly escalate life-threatening or dangerous situations or serious accidents’. Trump’s Twitter account has also been suspended on Friday.
Facebook, along with Google and Microsoft is also holding back donations to political parties and will update their political spending framework.
In reply to these big tech companies, former president, Donald Trump said that banning his social media accounts is going to be a catastrophic mistake. Let us wait for January 20.
Photo: Gilles Mingasson/Getty Images
Read next: Facebook Appoints a New VP for The Civil Rights Department to Minimize Racial Inequality on its Social Network
On January 6th, 2021, the deadly rampage occurred on the Capitol Hill, Facebook closed Trump’s account, with over 35 million followers, regarding the recent statement given by the former president in favor of his supporters, to steer clear of any commotion being caused on the day of the inauguration of Joe Biden on January 20th.
The FBI has also warned all 50 capital states of armed protests and the huge number of groups preparing to storm local a federal government courthouses and administrative buildings, bearing in mind the ‘Million Militia March’ being planned if Trump is removed before the inauguration of Joe Biden, according to The Washington Post.
On the day after the riot, a post by Founder and CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg said, ‘Trump’s decision to use Facebook for overlooking the actions of his supporters and not condemning it, has caused disturbance among the people. We judged that their effect and intent would be to provoke further violence’. He further said that involving our platform to incite any kind of violent insurrection against a democratically elected government will not be accepted, and there is a great risk in allowing him to continue using the social media platforms.
With 2.7 billion active users, Facebook said it would remove all the posts, pages, groups, and events containing the phrase and hash tags “stop the steal” supporting the president's false and baseless claims of election fraud. Few other apps have also taken strong action including Instagram, Twitter, and Amazon Web Services, which has stopped hosting the Parler, where users allegedly posted threats against lawmakers and activists. Amazon also told its employees to ‘be vigilant and be safe” and ‘to quickly escalate life-threatening or dangerous situations or serious accidents’. Trump’s Twitter account has also been suspended on Friday.
Facebook, along with Google and Microsoft is also holding back donations to political parties and will update their political spending framework.
In reply to these big tech companies, former president, Donald Trump said that banning his social media accounts is going to be a catastrophic mistake. Let us wait for January 20.
Photo: Gilles Mingasson/Getty Images
Read next: Facebook Appoints a New VP for The Civil Rights Department to Minimize Racial Inequality on its Social Network
