While it is not entirely surprising, the world was still quite shocked to see a mob stormed through the U.S Capitol in Washington yesterday after being riled up by the outgoing U.S President, Donald Trump. In response to the incident, Facebook and Twitter then subsequently decided to delete posts that related to it and put a temporary ban on Trump’s account on their respective platforms.
However, Facebook has since decided to take things even further. In a remark posted by Mark Zuckerberg himself, he has revealed that the company is now extending the ban on his Facebook and Instagram account from just 24 hours to “at least the next two weeks,”.
We believe the risks of allowing President Trump to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great, so we are extending the block we have placed on his Facebook and Instagram accounts indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks. pic.twitter.com/JkyGOTYB1Z
— Meta Newsroom (@MetaNewsroom) January 7, 2021
In other words, the social media company has decided to silence Trump until the next U.S President, Joe Biden has officially assumed the office. Through the same announcement, Mark has also defended Facebook’s decision to allow the outgoing President to utilise its platform, saying that it is a public right to have access to political speech regardless on whether it be controversial or otherwise.
Clearly, what happened yesterday has changed Zuckerberg & Co’s outlook on the matter. That being said, we doubt that this is far from over, knowing the controversial nature of Trump and his supporters.
(Source: Mark Zuckerberg. Photo: Evan Vucci/AP/Shutterstock)
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