Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg bans US President Donald Trump ‘indefinitely’ for inciting violence

Facebook has banned Donald Trump from the platform indefinitely due to his efforts to incite violence, CEO Mark Zuckerberg says.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifying before the House Judiciary in July 2020. Picture: AFP

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has banned Donald Trump from Facebook and Instagram indefinitely, or at least until he leaves office as US president.

Mr Zuckerberg announced the ban on Facebook and Instagram early on Friday.

“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,” Mr Zuckerberg said in a post on his Facebook account.

“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 labelling 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.”

Reaction to the post was mixed on the platform with some applauding the move in comments.

However some others have described its as an assault on democracy, while others have asked why Facebook is not prepared to take the same action in other countries where users incite violence aimed at threatening democratically elected governments.

Trump’s favourite megaphone, Twitter, blocked him for 12 hours after making him remove rule-breaking tweets.

Twitter said on Thursday that while the suspension was over, it was “continuing to evaluate the situation in real-time, including examining activity on the ground and statements made off Twitter” to determine whether more enforcement action is warranted.

Twitter has raised the spectre of permanently banning Trump if he continues with posts lying about election results or inciting violence.

There were no new posts at Trump’s Twitter account as of 7.30am on Thursday.

US Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat representing Virginia, said moves by Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to address Trump’s “sustained misuse of their platforms to sow discord and violence” had come too late.

“These platforms have served as core organising infrastructure for violent, far right groups and militia movements for several years now,” said the senator, who is the incoming Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

An activist group that formed a mock Facebook oversight board lamented that it took an insurrection for the social network to finally ban Trump.

“This week’s coup attempt shows us that Facebook is not fit to police itself,” said the group, which calls itself The Real Facebook Oversight Board, although it has no connection to the platform.

“The site remains a breeding ground for violent extremism and disinformation, its algorithm leading people into hate.”

Snapchat confirmed Thursday that it locked Trump out of the photo sharing platform amid concerns over his dangerous rhetoric.

The social media announcements came after Trump’s supporters stormed the US Capitol on Wednesday in an unprecedented attack that led to one woman being shot and killed by police, interrupting the normally ceremonial procedure to certify Biden’s election victory.

Trump, who had addressed the mob and urged them to march on the Capitol, later released a video on social media in which he repeated the false claim of election fraud -- even telling the mob “we love you.” YouTube removed the video in line with its policy barring claims challenging election results.

Twitter said Trump’s messages were violations of the platform’s rules on civic integrity and that any future violations “will result in permanent suspension of the @realDonaldTrump account.” The messaging platform said Trump’s account would be locked for 12 hours and that if the offending tweets were not removed, “the account will remain locked.” Critics of the online platforms argued they moved too slowly as Wednesday’s violence was organised on social media, directing their ire at Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.

“You’ve got blood on your hands, @jack and Zuck,” tweeted Chris Sacca, an early Facebook investor who has become one of its harshest critics.

“For four years you’ve rationalised this terror. Inciting violent treason is not a free speech exercise. If you work at those companies, it’s on you too.”

With AFP