Facebook, which had removed a video in which US PresidentDonald Trump urged his supporters, who forced their way into the Capitol,"to go home" but repeated his allegations of fraud in thepresidential elections, and blocked his account, announced on Thursday that therestrictions will continue till the end of his term on January 20.
We believe the risks of allowing the President tocontinue to use our service during this period are simply too great. Therefore,we are extending the block we have placed on his Facebook and Instagramaccounts indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks until the peacefultransition of power is complete," Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg wrote ina blog post.
He further wrote that the shocking events of the last 24hours clearly demonstrate that President Donald Trump intends to use hisremaining time in office to undermine the peaceful and lawful transition ofpower to his elected successor, Joe Biden.
His decision to use his platform to condone rather thancondemn the actions of his supporters at the Capitol building has rightlydisturbed people in the US and around the world. We removed these statementsyesterday because we judged that their effect -- and likely their intent --would be to provoke further violence.
Following the certification of the election results byCongress, the priority for the whole country must now be to ensure that theremaining 13 days and the days after inauguration pass peacefully and inaccordance with established democratic norms.
Over the last several years, we have allowed PresidentTrump to use our platform consistent with our own rules, at times removingcontent or labeling his posts when they violate our policies. We did thisbecause we believe that the public has a right to the broadest possible accessto political speech, even controversial speech. But the current context is nowfundamentally different, involving use of our platform to incite violentinsurrection against a democratically elected government, Zuckerberg postreads.