Facebook bravely bans Trump a day after attempted coup
For those who were wondering how far Donald Trump would have to go before Facebook banned him, it appears "inciting an insurrection" is the answer. After initially slapping the president with a temporary 24 hour suspension on Facebook and Instagram, on Thursday Trump was banned from the platforms indefinitely.
The announcement of his removal from the platforms (though not from office!) was made by Mark Zuckerberg. "We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great," the company's founder said in a blog post. Zuckerberg also stated that the events of the last 24 hours, including the storming of the Capitol building by Trump supporters, made it clear that Trump "intends to use his remaining time in office to undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power to his elected successor, Joe Biden."
The ban — or "block," as Facebook has deemed it — will remain in place for at least the next two weeks, until Joe Biden is inaugurated on January 20.
Mic has reached out to Facebook for additional details regarding the block, including what, if anything, would have to occur for the company to reinstate Trump's account. Facebook did not respond at the time of publication.
The indefinite ban that Trump received on Facebook and Instagram follows a similar decision by Twitter to take the unprecedented action of suspending the president's account. After applying labels to several of Trump's tweets warning that they pose a "risk of violence," the company finally locked Trump out of his account for 12 hours. While the suspension is technically up, Trump has yet to be able to tweet again because he has not removed the offending tweets from his account. It's unclear how Twitter will handle Trump returning to the platform, or if it will preempt that possibility like Facebook and simply ban Trump for the time being. A spokesperson for Twitter told Mic that the company is "continuing to evaluate the situation in real time, including examining activity on the ground and statements made off Twitter."
