Calls mount for Facebook and Twitter to ban Donald Trump permanently

A former Facebook top official has joined calls for Donald Trump to be permanently banned from social media, as critics say the platforms have ‘blood on their hands’.

After months of online statements posted by the President's accounts calling November's election fraudulent, violence erupted on Capitol Hill last night with protesters storming the heart of America's government, forcing officials to flee and security guards to draw their guns.

Alex Stamos, Facebook’s former chief security officer, said social media companies should urgently cut off the President to prevent further clashes.

"Twitter and Facebook have to cut him off," he tweeted. “Labeling won't do it”.

"There have been good arguments for private companies to not silence elected officials, but all those arguments are predicated on the protection of constitutional governance," he said.

“You’ve got blood on your hands, ‪@jack and Zuck,” tweeted venture capitalist Chris Sacca, a well-known early Twitter investor, directly addressing the platforms CEOs, Twitter's Jack Dorsey and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg.

“For four years you’ve rationalised this terror. Inciting violent treason is not a free speech exercise. If you work at those companies, it’s on you too. Shut it down.”

Alex Holmes, who is part of Twitter’s Trust and Safety Council, also called on the platform to shut down Trump’s accounts after a mob of his supporters stormed the house of Congress to protest the election result.

Four people died. One woman was shot and killed by police inside the Capitol. Three others died after suffering "medical emergencies" related to the event, according to Washington D.C.'s Police Department.

“It's time Twitter deactivated Trump's account for law & order!” Holmes said. “Action needs to be taken when someone is inciting violence & threat to safety”.

The tech platforms acted swiftly last night to pull down Trump’s posts on charges they aggravated violence. Facebook and Instagram, which Facebook owns, said Trump would not be able to post for 24 hours following two violations of its policies.

On Thursday, it extended that the ban "indefinitely". "We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great,"  said Mark Zuckerberg on his Facebook page.

"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 locked Trump out of his account for 12 hours and requested Trump delete three Tweets, including a short video in which he urged those supporters to "go home" while also repeating falsehoods about the integrity of the presidential election.

Trump's account deleted those posts, Twitter said. Had they remained, Twitter had threatened to extend its suspension.

However Andrew Yang, former Presidential candidate for the Democrats, said the platform's actions were not enough: "Twitter bans for inciting violence should last for months or years not hours". 

Throughout Trump's presidency, Facebook and Twitter have been lambasted for failing to create consistent policies that can be applied to the President's online statements.

Critics say the platforms' approach has been too lenient, only adding warning labels to Trump's posts in the lead up to the 2020 election.

Even as the companies came under increased pressure from both advertisers and staff, content which would usually have been taken down was given a "public interest" exemption if it was posted by Trump's account.

"A handful of times a year we make a decision to leave up content that would otherwise violate our policies because we consider that the public interest value outweighs the risk of that content," Zuckerberg said in a Facebook town hall last year.

However banning the outgoing President's account would lead big tech into unchartered territory, effectively giving the platforms' policy teams the power to decide what a Presidential could and couldn't broadcast.

Experts have also raised concerns that blocking Trump's use of mainstream platforms would push him to use less regulated social media sites, such as Gab or Parler, which could further polarise online debate.

But for others, the sight of protesters sitting in Vice President Mike Pence's chair, dressed in surrealist costumes that referenced online conspiracies, was evidence that Trump's social media posts were fuelling real life violence.

Jennifer Grygiel, a Syracuse University communications professor, said Wednesday's events in Washington, D.C. are a direct result of Trump's use of social media to spread propaganda and disinformation.

"This is what happens," she said. "We didn't just see a breach at the Capitol. Social media platforms have been breached by the president repeatedly. This is disinformation. This was a coup attempt in the United States."

On CNN, Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, added: “When you don’t have the courage as the leader to tell people the truth, you end up getting people that believe the conspiracies and the false truths and you get a Capitol storm like today”.

Celebrities have also joined in with the criticism. On Twitter, Elon Musk posted: "This is called the domino effect" alongside a meme showing how Facebook started out as "a website to rate women on campus" and evolved to inspire "a man in a viking hat" to take control of The Capitol.

The comedian, Sascha Baron Cohen, also used Twitter to say: "Facebook and Twitter have banned other extremists PERMANENTLY. They must ban Trump PERMANENTLY. NOW!"

For others, a permanent ban does not go far enough. Roger NcNamee, Mark Zuckerberg's former mentor and an early investor in Facebook was calling for a greater overhaul of policies governing social media platforms.

"As tempting as it is to blame Trump and his enablers for all of this, it's very clear that Facebook and YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and others has played a huge role," he said on MSNBC.

"Without them, you couldn't organise the events, you couldn't share all this information and people couldn't be sucked into these worlds of alternative realities."

Nancy Wang Yuen, professor of sociology at Biola University, said: "It is a moral imperative that Twitter deletes Trump's account and ban him."

Civil rights groups, including The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and Texas-based Latinx organization Jolt Action, were also pushing for a permanent ban.

Rashad Robinson, President of Color of Change said: "Ban him permanently. He's done enough damage. Do not allow him to return in a day to continue to spread dangerous [misinformation]."