Donald Trump has had his Twitter and Facebook accounts suspended following yesterday’s (January 6) riot at the US Capitol which was carried out by his supporters.
A large number of Trump supporters managed to force their way into the Capitol building yesterday following a rally, which caused the building, which is the seat of US Government, to be put into lockdown as politicians and nearby office buildings were evacuated.
A woman was shot dead by police inside the Capitol during the chaos, while three others have also died “of medical emergencies”, according to police.
Trump had earlier in the day encouraged his supporters to march on the Capitol in order to protest the certification of Joe Biden’s win in November’s presidential election, which has now resumed.
President-elect Biden decried the scenes at the Capitol as an “insurrection”, demanding that Trump âfulfil his oath, and defend the Constitution and demand an end to the siegeâ.
Trump then posted a video message on his social media accounts telling his protesters “I love you” and that they were “very special”, before then asking them to leave Washington D.C. and go home.
“I know your pain. I know you’re hurt,” Trump said, before repeating his false claims of electoral fraud. “We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election, and everyone knows it, especially the other side.
“But you have to go home now. We have to have peace.”
Twitter subsequently locked Trump’s account and demanded the removal of three tweets, including the video to his supporters, for “severe violations of our Civic Integrity policy”. The platform has threatened to permanently lock Trump’s account for good if the tweets are not removed.
“We have been significantly restricting engagement with tweets labelled under our Civic Integrity Policy due to the risk of violence,” Twitter said in a statement.
Facebook has banned Trump for the next 24 hours, saying in a statement that they removed his video “because on balance we believe it contributes to rather than diminishes the risk of ongoing violence”.
In a statement to the BBC, Facebook added: “The violent protests in the Capitol today are a disgrace. We prohibit incitement and calls for violence on our platform. We are actively reviewing and removing any content that breaks these rules.”
YouTube also removed Trump’s video as it “violated policies on spreading election fraud”.
Figures from across the entertainment world have been sharing their reaction to yesterday’s riot at the Capitol on social media, including the likes of St. Vincent, actor Edward Norton and Cardi B.
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