Facebook, Twitter Lock Trump Out Of His Social Media Accounts After Capitol Violence

Twitter Inc TWTR and Facebook Inc FB have blocked outgoing President Donald Trump’s accounts temporarily after the violent storming of the U.S. Capitol.

What Happened: Twitter’s safety account tweeted Wednesday that in the view of the “unprecedented” and “violent” situation in Washington, D.C., the social media platform required the removal of three tweets from the @realDonaldTrump handle, posted the same day, that were in repeated and severe violations of its policies.

The Jack Dorsey-led company said that the account would remain locked until the offending tweets were not removed and future violations would lead to permanent suspension.

Facebook has also blocked Trump from posting for a period of 24-hours.

"We've assessed two policy violations against President Trump's Page which will result in a 24-hour feature block, meaning he will lose the ability to post on the platform during that time," the social media giant said in a statement on Twitter.

Both Facebook and Twitter, alongside Alphabet Inc.'s GOOGL GOOG YouTube, took down a video posted by Trump earlier in the evening, where the outgoing president could be seen repeating his claim that the U.S. election was "stolen" even as he asked the supporters to "go home."

Why It Matters: The anarchy that erupted at the Capitol on Wednesday saw one person shot after a mob descended on the government building following a Trump speech to a “Stop The Steal” rally.

Trump had encouraged the crowd to go to the Capitol where lawmakers were in the process of counting the Electoral College votes.

The move by Twitter to lock the president’s account came after users called on Dorsey to pull down Trump’s account, reported the New York Times.

Chris Sacca, a Twitter investor called upon both Dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg to shut down Trump’s account.

“For four years you’ve rationalized this terror. Inciting violent treason is not a free speech exercise,” said Sacca as per the Times.

Price Action: Twitter shares closed 1.15% lower at $53.26 on Wednesday and fell 1.43% in the after-hours session to $52.50. On the same day, Facebook shares closed 2.83% lower at $263.31 and nearly 0.9% in the after-hours session.

Photo by Gage Skidmore on Flickr