If you’re aware of everything that’s going since a past few days, US President Donald Trump’s Twitter account has been permanently banned and suspended on Facebook for the next two weeks in the wake of a violent mob storming the US Capitol.
Following the footsteps on both, other social media platforms have also banned or restricted harmful speech to stop extremist Trump supporters from planning further riots or spreading misinformation about voter fraud.
Here’s a list of social media and tech companies taking action against Trump and how they’re doing it.
Twitter was the first one to permanently ban the US President’s account, citing the “risk of further incitement of violence.”
“In the context of horrific events this week, we made it clear on Wednesday that additional violations of the Twitter rules would potentially result in this very course of action,” a statement from Twitter said.
Facebook has suspended Trump from its platform at least until Inauguration Day, January 20, when Joe Biden takes over as the 47th President. The company says the risk from allowing Trump to use the platform before then is “simply too great”. “The current context is now fundamentally different, involving use of our platform to incite violent insurrection against a democratically elected government,” Mark Zuckerberg said.
Instagram, owned by Facebook has also banned Trump for two weeks. Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram said: “Given the exceptional circumstances, and the fact that the President has decided to condone rather than condemn yesterday’s violence at the Capitol, we are extending the block we have placed on his accounts indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks.”
Google has suspended Parler, a “free speech” Twitter clone popular with Trump supporters, from its Play Store pending the implementation of “robust moderation for egregious content”.
YOUTUBE
YouTube, owned by Google, has also announced that it will give a “strike” to channels that post videos with false claims that breach its policies. If a channel receives three “strikes” in a 90-day period, it will be removed from the platform.
APPLE
Apple has also banned Parler from its App Store. After the riot at the US Capitol, the brand told Parler it had 24 hours to bring in changes to stop harmful content. “We have suspended Parler from the App Store until they resolve these issues,” Apple said in a statement.
TIKTOK
TikTok has also removed videos that helped incite violence at the Capitol. The company has said it will also redirect popular hashtags used by the rioters
Reddit has banned the subreddit group r/DonaldTrump for inciting violence. A note on the page states: “This community was banned due to a violation of Reddit’s rules against inciting violence.”
SNAPCHAT
Snapchat has also banned Trump from its platform. They said in a statement that he won’t be able to use or share any new content until it has decided to lift restrictions.
Although the President does not have an account on Pinterest, the image-sharing website has stopped users from sharing baseless claims Trump has made about election fraud.
SHOPIFY
“Based on recent events, we have determined that the actions by President Donald J. Trump violate our Acceptable Use Policy, which prohibits promotion or support of organizations, platforms or people that threaten or condone violence to further a cause,” Shopify said in a statement to the New York Times.
