Mark Zuckerberg Announces Donald Trump Ban from Facebook and Instagram

January 7, 2021 — Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced in a statement posted to his personal page Thursday that Donald Trump will be blocked from using both Facebook and Instagram “for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete.”

The company blocked his accounts temporarily on Wednesday following Trump’s posting of content that incited his followers to violently breach Capitol Hill, but now Zuckerberg says the ban is extended “indefinitely.” Meaning at least until Joe Biden takes over as president.

“We believe the risks of allowing the president to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great,” Zuckerberg wrote. “Therefore, we are extending the block 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.”

Twitter and Facebook froze Trump’s accounts Wednesday in reaction to the president’s incendiary response to a mob of his supporters who invaded the U.S. Capitol. The platforms also removed several posts from Trump, including a video in which he called the rioters “very special” and professed his admiration for them.

In his post, Zuckerberg said Trump’s handling of the rioters “rightly disturbed people in the U.S. and around the world,” and that it has crossed the line for what the company will accept.

“Over the last several years, we have allowed President Trump to use our platform consistent with our own rules, at times removing content or labeling his posts when they violate our policies,” Zuckerberg wrote.

“We did this because we believe that the public has a right to the broadest possible access to political speech, even controversial speech. But the current context is now fundamentally different, involving use of our platform to incite violent insurrection against a democratically-elected government.”

Social media companies have long struggled to calibrate their approach to false and potentially dangerous information on their platforms coming from Trump and other high-profile political leaders.

Platforms somewhat stepped up their enforcement in the run-up to the election, but the moderation actions of the past 24 hours are a dramatic escalation of their handling of the sitting president.

Twitter restricted Trump’s account for the first time Wednesday and ordered him to delete multiple posts in order to regain access to his favored medium. The company throwing him off the platform entirely is a major reversal, as it has repeatedly held off calls to do so while Trump is in the Oval Office.

As a result of being blocked, Trump was forced to issue a concession assenting to an “orderly transition” of power via senior White House communications aide Dan Scavino’s Twitter account, after Congress officially certified the incoming president’s Electoral College victory.