Facebook will ban President Donald Trump from the platform "indefinitely," CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Thursday.

What You Need To Know

  • President Trump will be banned from Facebook and Instagram "indefinitely," CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Thursday

  • “We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great,” Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post

  • Trump has repeatedly harnessed the power of social media to spread falsehoods about election integrity and the results of the presidential race

  • Twitter also temporarily locked President Donald Trump’s accounts after he repeatedly posted false accusations about the integrity of the election

Zuckerberg said the risk of allowing Trump to use the platform is too great following the president’s incitement of a pro-Trump mob that caused a deadly riot in the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.

“We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great,” Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post. "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.

 

The shocking events of the last 24 hours clearly demonstrate that President Donald Trump intends to use his remaining...

Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday, January 7, 2021

"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," Zuckerberg wrote. "But the current context is now fundamentally different, involving use of our platform to incite violent insurrection against a democratically elected government."

Trump has repeatedly harnessed the power of social media to spread falsehoods about election integrity and the results of the presidential race. Platforms like Facebook have occasionally labeled or even removed some of his posts, but the overall response has failed to satisfy a growing number of critics who say the platforms have enabled the spread of dangerous misinformation.

In light of Wednesday’s riot, however, Zuckerberg said a more aggressive approach is needed.

“The current context is now fundamentally different, involving use of our platform to incite violent insurrection against a democratically elected government,” he wrote.

Twitter and Instagram on Wednesday also temporarily locked President Donald Trump’s accounts after he repeatedly posted false accusations about the integrity of the election. Twitter said Thursday that it had no news to report on further actions on Trump’s account.

A message left with the White House on Thursday morning was not immediately returned.

The Associated Press contributed to this update.