Facebook is banning Donald Trump from Facebook and Instagram "indefinitely."
"We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a Thursday post.
Following Wednesday's attack on the US Capitol by a pro-Trump mob, Facebook imposed a 24-hour ban on Trump's account for "two policy violations" on posts in which Trump sympathized with those who were, at the time, terrorizing the Capitol. One post included a video that concluded with Trump telling them, "We love you, you’re very special."
"We removed these statements yesterday because we judged that their effect—and likely their intent—would be to provoke further violence," Zuckerberg said today.
As the dust settled and outrage grew overnight, Facebook decided it would "[extend] 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 has also locked Trump's account until he deletes three tweets that violate its content policies, after which he'll be in a 12-hour timeout. Snapchat has also locked Trump's account.
In his post, Zuckerberg said "the shocking events of the last 24 hours clearly demonstrate that President Donald Trump intends to use his remaining time in office to undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power to his elected successor, Joe Biden."
Facebook and Zuckerberg have taken heat—sometimes from their own employees—for not taking action on Trump's posts over the years or doing enough to stamp out misinformation. Today, Zuckerberg agued that Facebook "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.
"We did this because we believe that the public has a right to the broadest possible access to political speech, even controversial speech," he continued. "But the current context is now fundamentally different, involving use of our platform to incite violent insurrection against a democratically elected government."
In a statement, Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, incoming Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence said he was "pleased" to see Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube taking action on Trump's accounts, but said it's ultimately "too late and not nearly enough."
"Disinformation and extremism researchers have for years pointed to broader network-based exploitation of these platforms. As I have continually said, 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," Sen. Warner says.