US chaos: Facebook, Twitter accuse Donald Trump of promoting violence

- Facebook and Twitter removed two posts shared by outgoing President Donald Trump after he voiced his support for protesters who stormed the United States Capitol

- In the posts, the controversial 45th US president had urged his supporters to go home but noted he understood their pain after his "landslide victory" was allegedly stolen

- In a statement, Twitter said the 74-year-old's account would be locked for 12 hours as it warned against future violations, which it said would result in permanent suspension

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Social media giants Facebook and Twitter on Wednesday, January 6 accused Republican leader Donald Trump of promoting violence through his official handles and subsequently barred him from posting, albeit temporarily.

According to a report by Forbes, the two networking sites removed two posts shared by the outgoing president after he voiced his support for protesters who stormed the United States Capitol, which is the meeting place of the Congress and the seat of the legislative branch of the US federal government.

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In the posts, the controversial 45th US president had urged his supporters to go home but however, noted he understood their pain after his "landslide victory" was allegedly stolen from him by President elect Joe Biden, who ran against him on the Democratic Party ticket.

Trump's accounts locked

In a statement, Twitter said the 74-year-old's account would be locked for 12 hours as it warned against future violations, which it said would result in permanent suspension.

"Future violations of the Twitter Rules, including our civic Integrity or violent threats policies, will result in permanent suspension of the @realDonaldTrump account. Our public interest policy — which has guided our enforcement action in this area for years — ends where we believe the risk of harm is higher and/or more severe."

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Facebook on the other hand prohibited Trump from sharing his thoughts on any topic for 24 hours after his posts were labelled as a threat to the ongoing siege on the US Capitol.

Trump's supporters storm US Capitol

Earlier, Trump's s supporters had stormed the House Chamber while Congress was confirming Electoral College votes for the 2020 presidential election. The US Capitol police officers were forced to draw their guns in a chaotic scene last witnessed in 1812 in the powerful country's history.

The protesters wanted to delay the peaceful transfer of power and came after outgoing Vice President Mike Pence, a Republican, rejected his boss' calls to overturn Biden's win.

In November, Twitter flagged several tweets posted by Trump and labelled them as possibly 'misleading'. This came after he claimed the presidential election was rigged in favour of Biden.

Briefly.co.za news earlier reported that United States President-elect Joe Biden has challenged the outgoing President Donald Trump to go public on television and denounce the chaos at Capitol Hill.

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There was a moment of shame at the House on Wednesday, 6 January after Trump's supporters breached security and stormed the congress in a bid to halt Biden's certification process.

Taking to Twitter, the Democratic party leader, Joe Biden condemned the violence, terming it an "assault on the citadel of liberty" and imploring the outgoing leader to step up and end the mayhem.

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Source: Briefly News