Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the Facebook and Instagram accounts of President Donald Trump will remain blocked indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks — effectively preventing the president from posting until he leaves office.
An excerpt from Zuckerberg’s statement:
Over the last several years, we have allowed President Trump to use our platform consistent with our own rules, at times removing content or labeling his posts when they violate our policies. We did this because we believe that the public has a right to the broadest possible access to political speech, even controversial speech. But the current context is now fundamentally different, involving use of our platform to incite violent insurrection against a democratically elected government.
We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great. 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.
On Wednesday, following the attack on the United States Capitol by pro-Trump extremists, Facebook imposed a 24-hour block on the President’s account, in response to incendiary posts. In a tweet, Facebook said:
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.
Facebook-owned Instagram matched that 24-hour block.
This story is developing…