After years of treating President Donald Trump’s fiery rhetoric with a light touch, Facebook and Instagram are silencing their social media accounts for the rest of their presidency. The move, which many deemed due after Wednesday’s deadly uprising at the United States Capitol, is also a reminder of the enormous power that social media platforms can exercise whenever they want.
Facebook and Instagram said on Thursday that they will prevent Trump from posting at least until President-elect Joe Biden takes office.
A 12-hour lock on Trump’s account ended on Thursday and the president used his restored account to post a video in which he first acknowledged that his presidency will end soon.
It is not yet clear how platforms will deal with Trump when he leaves office and is no longer protected from applying most of the rules for its status as a world leader. And some critics saw the moves as cynical efforts by companies to position themselves for a post-Trump future.
“They no longer need to fear Donald Trump,” said Rashad Robinson of Color of Change, a group that presses technology companies to do more to contain the hate speech. He said Facebook’s action was “in Facebook’s best interest” and a way to please the new Democratic president and Congress.
In announcing the unprecedented change, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said the risk of allowing Trump to use the platform is too great after the president’s inciting a crowd on Wednesday. Zuckerberg said that Trump’s account will be blocked “at least in the next two weeks” and possibly indefinitely.
“The shocking events of the past 24 hours clearly demonstrate that President Donald Trump intends to use his remaining time in office to undermine the peaceful and legal transition from power to his elected successor, Joe Biden,” wrote Zuckerberg.
Trump has repeatedly harnessed the power of social media to spread falsehoods about electoral integrity and the results of the presidential race. Platforms like Facebook have occasionally labeled or even removed some of their posts, but the general response has failed to satisfy a growing number of critics who say the platforms have allowed the spread of dangerous misinformation.
In light of Wednesday’s riot, however, Zuckerberg said a more aggressive approach is needed because of “using our platform to incite a violent uprising against a democratically elected government”.
Instagram, which belongs to Facebook, will also block Trump’s ability to post on his platform. Google-owned YouTube has announced more general changes that will penalize accounts that spread misinformation about election fraud in the 2020 elections, with repeat offenders facing permanent removal. Snapchat on Wednesday blocked Trump’s account “indefinitely.”
Twitch, the live streaming site owned by Amazon and used by Trump’s campaign to broadcast speeches, deactivated Trump’s account until he stepped down, saying he didn’t want to be used “to incite more violence”. Companies outside the social media world have also endeavored to assess how they were used by those who broke into Capitol. The e-commerce company Shopify closed two online Trump memorabilia stores to promote people or organizations “who threaten or tolerate violence to promote a cause”.
White House spokesman Judd Deere said in an e-mail that “it is incredibly ironic, but not surprising, that when the president spoke to the country at a critical time, Big Tech chose to censor and prevent him from do it “.
It was on Twitter that Trump would probably feel the effects the most. The company blocked its accounts for 12 hours after it repeatedly posted false accusations about the integrity of the election. Trump, more than a decade ago, adopted the immediacy and scale of the platform to gather loyalists, punish enemies and spread false rumors.
In his video posted to his restored account on Thursday, Trump condemned the violence on Capitol Hill, reversing the stance he took in a video featured on Wednesday.
A company spokesman said Twitter could take other steps as it tracks “local activity and statements made outside of Twitter”.
The platforms continued to face criticism from users who blamed them, in part, for creating an online environment that led to Wednesday’s violence.
“Today is the result of allowing people with hatred in their hearts to use platforms that should be used to bring people together,” wrote singer and actress Selena Gomez on Twitter for her 64 million followers. “All of you have failed the American people today and I hope you will fix things going forward.”
Senator Mark Warner, the next chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, on Thursday called Facebook, Twitter and Google “collaborators” in Trump’s attack on US democracy. “And his 11-hour conversion now to suddenly bring down Trump’s Facebook or Twitter feed is a little too late,” said Virginia Democrat during an Aspen Digital online forum.
The actions of the platforms followed years in which they surrounded and hesitated on dangerous misinformation and violent rhetoric, Trump and his supporters spread, contributing to Wednesday’s violence.
On Wednesday, companies focused on a video that Trump posted more than two hours after protesters entered the Capitol, interrupting the meeting of legislators in an extraordinary joint session to confirm the results of the Electoral College and the victory of President-elect Joe Biden. Republican lawmakers and former government officials begged Trump to give a statement to his supporters to crack down on violence.
Although Trump told his supporters that “you need to go home now”, he also repeated false claims about the electoral fraud that affected the election. He then added: “We cannot play these people’s game. We need to have peace. Then go home. We love you. You are very special. “
Twitter, Facebook and YouTube said they removed the video on Wednesday, citing its misinformation or dangerous rhetoric.
In a statement on Thursday morning, Trump said there would be an “orderly transition on January 20” and acknowledged defeat in the election for the first time. His advisers posted the statement on Twitter because the president’s account remained suspended.
Monica Stephens, a professor at the University of Buffalo who studies social media, said it makes sense for Facebook and Twitter to try lighter ways to contain disinformation in the months leading up to the election. “They are being criticized on both sides of the political corridor,” she said.
Trump’s fervent supporters flocked to Parler, Gab and other “free speech” social media sites that address conservative voices. Some were used by the people who invaded the Capitol. If conventional platforms take the discussion of violence and social protest to the most marginal places, Stephens said, “it will still happen; it will happen where it is not read. “
Now that the platforms have imposed strong restrictions on Trump, companies like Facebook and Twitter may find it more difficult to avoid calls to ban other political figures who incite violence, said Shannon McGregor, assistant professor of journalism and media at the University of North Carolina. “Because they resisted and resisted, but now that they have succeeded, it is difficult to go back,” she said.
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AP editors Mae Anderson, Tali Arbel, Barbara Ortutay, Frank Bajak and Joseph Pisani contributed to this report.