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“After consideration, and given concerns about the continued potential for violence, we have removed new content posted to Donald J. Trump’s channel for violating our rules. He now has his first warning and is temporarily barred from download new content for a * minimum * of 7 days.
“Given the lingering concerns about violence, we will also be turning off comments on President Trump’s channel indefinitely, as we have done for other channels where security concerns can be found in the comments section.”
Update (1/7/21) – Donald trump The Twitch account has now also been deactivated. A spokesperson told IGN: “Given the current extraordinary circumstances and the President’s inflammatory rhetoric, we believe this is a necessary step to protect our community and prevent Twitch from being used to incite further violence. . “
The original story follows. Mark Zuckerberg announced that President Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts have been blocked “indefinitely and for at least two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete.”
In one statement on facebook (which you can read in full at the bottom of this article), Zuckerberg wrote that the decision stems from Trump “clearly” intending to use his remaining time in power to undermine the transition of power to President-elect Joe Biden.
The landmark decision to block a sitting president from a major social media account follows a tumultuous day in US politics. As Georgia’s run-off nearly confirmed Democrats’ control over the Senate and Congress convened to formally confirm Biden’s electoral victory, Trump held a “ Stop the Steal ” rally in Washington DC, during which he made continuous and unfounded election declarations. rigging.
Many drew a line between Trump’s rhetoric – which urged the crowd to march to the United States Capitol – and a subsequent attack on the Capitol itself, seeing dozens of Trump supporters force their way into the building, and which resulted in four deaths. . Congress reconvened after the crowds dispersed and officially wiped the Electoral College tally, ratifying Biden’s victory.
President Trump at his January 6 rally. (Image credit: Tasos Katopodis / Getty Images)
As Trump ultimately used social media to call on those inside the building to leave peacefully, he continued his bogus election-rigging claims and told protesters, “We love you.” This led to Facebook and Twitter first reporting and then removing several posts from Trump, before imposing temporary bans on him.
Twitter’s 12-hour ban has now expired after Trump deleted what had been flagged as offensive tweets. Facebook’s approach appears to go a step further, with its 24-hour ban extended indefinitely, and at least until the end of the presidential transition process on January 20.
Following the attack on the Capitol, Street Fighter player Ryan ‘Gootecks’ Gutierrez posted a tweet that appeared to call for further violence. As a result, Twitch has confirmed that it will. remove the popular “Pogchamp” emote based on Gutierrez. In a statement, the company wrote: “We cannot in good conscience continue to allow the use of the image. We will work with the community to design a new emote for the hottest moments on Twitch.”
Zuckerberg’s post follows in full:
“The shocking events of the past 24 hours clearly demonstrate that President Donald Trump intends to use his remaining time to undermine the peaceful and legal transition of power to his elected successor, Joe Biden.
His decision to use his platform to condone rather than condemn the actions of his supporters on Capitol Hill has rightly bothered people in the United States and around the world. We deleted these statements yesterday because we felt that their effect – and probably their intention – would be to provoke further violence.
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 the inauguration take place peacefully and in accordance with established democratic standards. .
Over the past few years, we’ve allowed President Trump to use our platform according to our own rules, sometimes removing content or tagging his posts when they violate our policies. We did this because we believe that the public has the right to have the widest possible access to political discourse, however controversial. But the current context is now fundamentally different, involving the use of our platform to incite a violent insurgency against a democratically elected government.
We believe that the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our services during this period are simply too great. Therefore, we are extending the block that 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.
Joe Skrebels is IGN’s News Editor. Follow him on Twitter. Any advice to give us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.
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