Tech

Trump returns to Twitter after Facebook extends ban through inauguration



A day after the mob he urged on stormed its way into the U.S. Capitol seeking to disrupt a count of electoral votes, President Trump faced the suspension of his Facebook account through the end of his term in office, the lingering threat of a similar action by Twitter and freezes or suspensions on other valuable social media and e-commerce channels under his control.

Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg announced the suspension Thursday morning in response to Trump’s messages condoning the rioters the day before. As members of Congress sheltered in place and law enforcement officers sought to secure the building, Trump posted a message saying his “sacred landslide election victory” had been “viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long.” A subsequent video message posted on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube urged rioters to “go home now” but reiterated the baseless claim of a stolen election.

The three platforms removed the video, and Facebook and Twitter issued temporary blocks on the president’s accounts Wednesday. Facebook then went a step further, freezing Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts through at least Jan. 20, when President-elect Joe Biden is scheduled to be inaugurated. Separately, Snapchat said it had also locked his account and would reassess later.

“We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great,” Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post. “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.”

Twitter imposed a temporary freeze on Trump’s account Wednesday but lifted it Thursday after he deleted messages that violated its safety policies. The company warned, “Future violations of the Twitter Rules, including our Civic Integrity or Violent Threats policies, will result in permanent suspension of the @realDonaldTrump account.”

Trump marked the restoration of his privileges with a video message that diverged in tone and content sharply from his earlier posts. In it, he condemned Wednesday’s rioting as a “heinous attack” and said “the demonstrators who infiltrated the Capitol have defiled the seat of American democracy.”

“Tempers must be cooled and calm restored,” he said in the nearly three-minute video, which contained only brief and vague allusions to the integrity of elections. “A new administration will be inaugurated on Jan. 20. My focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power.”

Facebook and Twitter have faced scrutiny over their lax moderation of Trump’s accounts throughout his time in office and particularly during the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. For years, the companies have scrambled to revise their policies on misinformation and hate speech in response to ever-escalating challenges from the White House and supporters of the president.

The challenge has been a complicated and unprecedented one, raising questions about freedom of speech and whether the president of the United States should be afforded greater leeway than the average user to espouse his views even when they are proven to be inaccurate or appear to incite violence.

In recent months, the social media giants have increasingly leaned on disclaimers to flag certain posts as disputed, stopping short of shutting down or suspending Trump’s accounts.