Facebook Co-Founder, Mark Zuckerberg, says United States President, Donald Trump, is banned from Facebook and Instagram till the end of his tenure on January 20, 2020.
Zuckerberg said this in a post on Facebook while reacting to the violence perpetrated at the Capitol by Trump supporters who wanted to stop the US Congress from certifying the election which Joe Biden won.
The billionaire said for years Facebook and Instagram had allowed Trump to use the platform to say all sorts but this time, it was time to implement desperate measures since it had become obvious that Trump was instigating violence.
The statement read in part: “Following the certification of the election results by Congress, the priority for the whole country must now be to ensure that the remaining 13 days and the days after inauguration pass peacefully and in accordance with established democratic norms.
“Over the last several years, we have allowed President Trump to use our platform consistent with our own rules, at times removing content or labelling 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.”
