Facebook Indefinitely Bans Trump from Facebook and Instagram

Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg announced on Thursday that the company was banning U.S President Trump from Facebook and Instagram indefinitely.

This not-so-surprising announcement followed after the violent Wednesday incident at the Capitol. According to reports, a conflict escalated between Silicon Valley and the White House after President Trump was said to have incited the angry mob using the Web as a weapon.

“We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great,” Zuckerberg wrote. “Therefore, we are extending the block we have placed on his Facebook and Instagram accounts indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete.”

The social media giant is the first of its kind to temporarily ban and elongate the suspension of the President’s accounts for so long. If the President’s misuse of social media platforms to incite violence continues, Facebook may just be the first social media platform to permanently remove Trump.

“The President has shown he intends to use his remaining time in office to undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power to his elected successor, Joe Biden,” Zuckerberg added.

In past and recent times, Twitter has banned Trump’s account or taken down some of his posts. After the violent attack launched by an angry mob on Wednesday, Twitter suspended the President’s account for 12 hours. By Thursday evening, he had access to his account again and resumed by sharing a video acknowledging that there will be a new administration soon. Twitter, which is the President’s preferred social media platform, said “future violations” by Trump will result in a permanent ban of the @realDonaldTrump account.

“There’s this element of all the companies hand-wringing until one of them takes a step, and then a few minutes, everyone does it,” said Twitter’s former head of news, government, and elections, Adam Sharp. “Nobody wants to be the first, and they just take turns on who is going to be the first one to go that time around. Then they all ‘Thelma and Louise’ it and make the call.”

Sharp added that the underlying problem of most tech platforms is that the gravity of the President’s misconduct goes beyond the systems the companies have set in place for punishing misbehavior.

President Trump was allegedly said to have incited the violent mob to storm the Capitol, an event that forced US lawmakers into a lockdown and briefly disrupted the certification of President-elect Joe Biden as the next President of the Country. While social media platforms may have taken prompt actions to suspend the President’s accounts. Some critics still accused them of not taking quick actions sooner enough to prevent the President from provoking the situation.

“While I’m pleased to see social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube take long-belated steps to address the President’s sustained misuse of their platforms to sow discord and violence, these isolated actions are both too late and not nearly enough,” said Sen. Marl R. Warner (D-Va), in a statement. “Disinformation and extremism researchers have for years pointed to broader network-based exploitation of these platforms.”