Zuckerberg says Trump’s account will be locked “for at least the next two weeks” but could remain locked indefinitely.
“The shocking events of the last 24 hours clearly demonstrate that President Donald Trump intends to use his remaining time in office to undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power to his elected successor,Joe Biden,"Zuckerberg wrote.
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 labelled 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 the riot,however,Zuckerberg said a more aggressive approach was needed.
“The current context is now fundamentally different,involving use of our platform to incite violent insurrection against a democratically elected government,” he wrote.
Instagram,which is owned by Facebook,will also block Trump's ability to post on its platform “indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks,"Adam Mosseri,the head of Instagram tweeted Thursday.