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Summary
- Facebook announced a contradictory decision for banning President’s account until 20 January 2021.
- Twitter though locked his account on Wednesday; decided to lift the restrictions, provided the President does not break any more rules.
After the Capitol Hill violence on Wednesday condemned by the world leaders across the countries, the social media giants have come into the action. Facebook has announced banning Trump's account for at least until the incumbent President's term gets over.
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's chief executive has confirmed banning him and stated that the risks of letting Trump continue to use its platforms are too great. He also mentioned that President is using his remaining term in office to create disturbance to the lawful and peaceful transfer of power to Joe Biden; consequently, Facebook and its picture-sharing platform ‘Instagram’ have banned him until 20 January 2021. YouTube also applied a stricter election fraud misinformation policy to stop Mr Trump from posting false election claims.
Trump's most used social media platform Twitter had locked Trump's account on Wednesday post the Capitol Hill violence. It was lifted the next day subject to few conditions by the platform demanding the delete of his several tweets, and confirmation for abiding by the rules. However, though Mr Trump has about 88 million followers on the platform and tweets often, the relation between him and Twitter has their share of rough patches. Read here to know more, Trump-Twitter Spat: Is this honking the Share Price of any stock
Senator Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, has appreciated the move by these social media companies and said the steps were long awaited to stop the President from misusing the platforms to encourage violence through his supporters. He liked the decision taken and said that the actions came too late and are not enough.
Other against this decision has also raised their voice and questioned Facebook and other companies' strict move. They believe that this outcome seems to be based on the power of transfer, where Trump is departing from White House, and Democrats take full control of Congress.
The Background
The Capitol Hill violence on Wednesday that had claimed four lives was an unexpected and shocking incident. Something of that sort had never happened in the US. It is, indeed, a threat to peace and democracy. Mr Trump had advised his followers to walk to the Capitol Hill to protest against the so-called election fraud. What happened next was an unbelievable sight. Trump's supporters took his favourite leader seriously and stormed into the Capital Hill, which led to the death of atleast 5 and many resignations for unable to control the situation.
Also read: Pro-Trump Protesters Attack US Capitol Hill, One Dead