Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram Lock President Donald Trump’s Accounts

President Donald Trump’s Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram accounts have been locked amid the Capitol Building riot on January 6.  

“As a result of the unprecedented and ongoing violent situation in Washington, D.C., we have required the removal of three @realDonaldTrump Tweets that were posted earlier today for repeated and severe violations of our Civic Integrity policy,” Twitter said in a statement on Wednesday night, January 6, at 7:02 p.m. ET.  “This means that the account of @realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours following the removal of these tweets. If the tweets are not removed, the account will remain locked.”

Facebook Newsroom announced via Twitter on January 6 at 8:36 p.m. ET that it had “assessed two policy violations against President Trump’s Page which will result in a 24-hour feature block, meaning he will lose the ability to post on the platform during that time.”

Following Facebook’s announcement, Instagram head Adam Mosseri tweeted on January 6 at 8:58 p.m. ET that the company is pursuing similar measures and “locking President Trump’s Instagram account for 24 hours as well.”

These moves came mere hours after droves of President Trump’s supporters dangerously stormed the Capitol Building in “protest” over the 2020 election results. The unprecedented D.C. riot resulted in four fatalities, 52 arrests, and damage to the meeting place of the U.S. Congress. 

People, including former President Barack Obama, are calling out Trump for inciting the riot. “History will rightly remember today’s violence at the Capitol, incited by a sitting president who has continued to baselessly lie about the outcome of a lawful election, as a moment of great dishonor and shame for our nation,” Obama wrote in a statement. 

Trump has posted many of those baseless lies on social media channels like Twitter. In a tweet posted December 19, he told his supporters to attend a “big protest” on January 6 that “will be wild.” 

“Washington is being inundated with people who don’t want to see an election victory stolen by emboldened Radical Left Democrats,” Trump tweeted on Tuesday, January 5, one day before the riot. “Our Country has had enough, they won’t take it anymore! We hear you (and love you) from the Oval Office. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

He continued to tweet and post inaccurate information on January 6 in violation of Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook’s policies. For months, several of Trump’s tweets have included a note that his claims of election fraud are categorically disputed. 

Here, he told his supporters to “be strong.” 

On January 7, one day after the Capitol riot, Congress confirmed President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’s win. Trump is now agreeing to an “orderly” transition of power. “Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20th,” he said in a statement. 

Biden and Harris will be sworn in on Wednesday, January 20.