Donald Trump has had his Facebook and Twitter accounts suspended, following the recent Capitol riots at Washington DC.
After a rally, Trump supporters managed to break into the Capitol building. This led to the building, which is the seat of the US Government to be placed in lockdown. Nearby buildings had to also be evacuated.
A woman was also shot dead by police, while the police reported a further three people dying from “medical emergences”.
Trump had encouraged his supporters to protest against Joe Biden’s presidential victory. The US Congress have since accepted the electoral votes, paving the way for Biden to take office later this month.
Biden called the riots “an insurrection”, urging Trump to “fulfil his oath, and defend the Constitution and demand an end to the siege”.
Trump’s Message:
Donald Trump had posted a video message on his social media accounts. In this message, he tells protestors, “I love you”. He also descried them as “very special”.
Trump also continued with his claims of fraud in the election. He also said in the message, “I know your pain. I know you’re hurt,” adding “We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election, and everyone knows it, especially the other side”.
He also said, “But you have to go home now. We have to have peace”.
Twitter locked Trump’s account in the aftermath of this. They demanded that three tweets be removed, including the video message. These tweets were described as “severe violations of our Civic Integrity policy” by the social media platform. Twitter also threatened to lock Trump’s account permenantly if the posts were not removed.
Twitter released a statement, “We have been significantly restricting engagement with tweets labelled under our Civic Integrity Policy due to the risk of violence”.
Facebook also issued a statement, “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”.
Trump’s video was also removed from Youtube as it “violated policies on spreading election fraud”.
Celebrities Criticise:
Several high profile people in the entertainment business have levelled criticism at Trump and the rioters. These include actor, Edward Norton, singer Cardi B and Kiss frontman Paul Stanley.
Norton and Cardi B criticised the rioters that broke into the capitol building.
While last week, Paul Stanley slammed Trump, following his voting lawsuit in Georgia.
