Twitter, Facebook and Snapchat have suspended US President Donald Trump’s accounts after he tweeted his support to protestors who attacked Capitol Hill. In a social media message, he told the protestors he loved them, asking them to go home while reiterating his fraud claims regarding the US elections.
Twitter earlier declared “severe violations of our Civic Integrity policy” on three of Trump’s tweets, with a threat to block the account for good if they were not removed. The company said that “Future violations of the Twitter Rules… will result in permanent suspension of the @realDonaldTrump account”.
It seems the threat was taken seriously as the last three tweets have since been removed with a Twitter disclaimer ” This tweet is no longer available because it violated the Twitter rules” in their place.
Read: Trump Alleges Massive Fraud In U.S. Election, Wants Counting Stopped [Video]
In an interesting twist, White House director of social media, Dan Scavino’s twitter account was used to publish the President’s official statement.
“Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20th,” it quoted Mr Trump as saying.
“I have always said we would continue our fight to ensure that only legal votes were counted. While this represents the end of the greatest first term in presidential history, it’s only the beginning of our fight to Make America Great Again!”
Facebook and Instagram have since banned the President’s accounts for 24 hours, with YouTube and Facebook taking down the video of the protestor’s attack.
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Facebook said: “We removed it because on balance we believe it contributes to rather than diminishes the risk of ongoing violence.”
YouTube said it removed the video because it “violated policies on spreading election fraud”.
