Facebook Bans Trump Indefinitely; Simington Comments on Election
Facebook extended its ban of President Donald Trump’s accounts on the platform and Instagram “indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks,” until Joe Biden takes office, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced. Also Thursday, congressional critics and others in the telecom and tech spheres slammed Trump over his encouraging protesters to go to the Capitol, where several were reported by authorities to have been killed. See here and here for our reports. (Our reporter, who was trapped for several hours, was later able to safely leave, as were other journalists.)
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The FCC's newest member, Nathan Simington, broke his silence Thursday evening and acknowledged that Biden is the next president. He “urged all Americans to work together towards a peaceful transfer of administrative power” on Jan. 20 to “President-elect” Biden. The GOP commissioner wrote that "should we disagree on some issues, we would do well to remember Thomas Jefferson’s words at the time of another presidential transition, the first in which the Administration changed parties: ‘…every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle.’”
Trump’s “decision to use his platform to condone rather than condemn the actions of his supporters at the Capitol building has rightly disturbed people in the US and around the world,” Zuckerberg wrote. “We removed these statements yesterday because we judged that their effect -- and likely their intent -- would be to provoke further violence.”
Twitter is “continuing to evaluate the situation in real time,” a spokesperson emailed Thursday after the platform required removal of several Trump tweets in violation of its civic integrity policy. The account was to remain locked for 12 hours after removal and indefinitely if the tweets weren’t removed. The platform will evaluate “activity on the ground and statements made off Twitter,” the spokesperson wrote. “We will keep the public informed, including if further escalation in our enforcement approach is necessary.”
YouTube removed a video Wednesday in which Trump made unsubstantiated claims about the election outcome, citing policies on fraud and misinformation. YouTube channels “posting new videos with false claims in violation of our policies will now” face temporary and permanent bans, the platform said Thursday.
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., welcomed the news but said platforms aren’t doing enough: “These platforms have served as core organizing infrastructure for violent, far right groups and militia movements for several years now -- helping them to recruit, organize, coordinate and in many cases (particularly with respect to YouTube) generate profits from their violent, extremist content.”
House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., urged Facebook and Twitter to permanently ban Trump. “12 and 24-hour 'time-outs' ignore the damage Trump has done and threat he is to our democracy,” Pallone tweeted. “Given the danger and Trump's history of using the platforms to spread disinformation and incite violence,” both platforms “must permanently remove Trump.” Nothing less than a ban “will meet this moment,” Thompson said in a statement. “I’m deeply frustrated that it took a group of domestic terrorists storming the Capitol before” Facebook was “willing to” suspend Trump’s account. “I can’t help but wonder if the decision was an opportunistic one, motivated by the news of a Democratically controlled Congress,” he said. Twitter “appears to be leaving open the possibility that it will lift its suspension of Trump’s account in the near future. This would be catastrophic.”
Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said Thursday she’s resigning, effective Monday, because of the violence. The insurrection “has deeply troubled me in a way that I simply cannot set aside,” Chao said in a letter to department staff posted to Twitter. Trump withdrew his nomination of Homeland Security acting Secretary Chad Wolf after Wolf urged him to “strongly condemn” the violence. The Senate wasn't expected to act on Wolf’s nomination before Biden’s Jan. 20 inauguration. A White House spokesperson said the withdrawal “was not related at all” to Wolf’s comments.
Several telecom leaders condemned the Capitol Hill violence Wednesday, after similar statements by FCC commissioners (see 2101060057). AT&T CEO John Stankey said the violence was "an appalling insurrection bent on blocking the peaceful transfer of power following a fair and free election" and congratulated Biden and Harris on their victory. NCTA CEO Michael Powell tweeted it was a "sad and deeply disturbing moment for our nation" and "something I could not imagine in my wildest imagination." At NCTA's smaller cable counterpart, ACA Connects, CEO Matthew Polka also tweeted Wednesday that "we all must stand against violence, cancel the hatred, and reach out to all extending a hand of grace and mercy." Information Technology Industry Council CEO Jason Oxman said that "a peaceful transition of power is not self-executing -- it requires all public officials to put the nation first, before personal or political interests."
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) criticized Trump at a news conference Thursday. “Despite actions of an unhinged president and those that believe the baseless conspiracies that have been peddled by him and by other elected officials, the United States remains strong, our democracy is prevailing.” Sixty-eight people were arrested Wednesday evening through Thursday morning, most of them on the Capitol grounds, said Metropolitan Police Department acting Chief Robert Contee. The Capitol Police also released a statement but didn’t answer our questions.