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Washington D.C. was an ugly sight yesterday as protestors from the “Stop the Steal” March made their way to the U.S. Capitol building to protest the Electoral College vote. Protestors reached the Capitol building while Congress was in session. The protestors crossed police barricades to mount the steps of the building and some individuals gained entry into the Capitol building. President Trump posted multiple tweets yesterday addressing the protestors asking everyone “to remain peaceful”, calling for “No violence!”
Then as it became apparent that violence might be inevitable the President posted a video on Twitter asking for the protestors to “go home” and to “do so peacefully”. However, due to additional statements made in the video Twitter removed and blocked the video. They have also currently locked President Trump’s account for twelve hours.
Tech response
Twitter locked the President’s account and required the removal of three tweets made by the President on Wednesday. They stated the following as the reason for locking his account was, “for repeated and severe violations of our Civic Integrity policy”.
“As a result of the unprecedented and ongoing violent situation in Washington, D.C., we have required the removal of three @realDonaldTrump Tweets that were posted earlier today for repeated and severe violations of our Civic Integrity policy
Facebook soon followed Twitter and removed the video from its platform as well. They also placed a feature block on the President’s account. The Facebook Newsroom used Twitter to make the announcement as to the reason behind the block. “We’ve assessed two policy violations against President Trump’s Page which will result in a 24-hour feature block, meaning he will lose the ability to post on the platform during that time.”
Following suit, Instagram’s head, Adam Mosseri, simply tweeted: “We are locking President Trump’s Instagram account for 24 hours as well.”
What was the violation?
So, what were the violations that President Trump made to warrant such a complete social media blackout? In his video, the President stated, “We had an election that was stolen from us”. He also made the claim that the election “was fraudulent”. Twitter designated these statements as inciting violence and removed the video.
Youtube also removed the video from its platform. Youtube’s spokesperson gave this reason, “[The video] violated our policies regarding content that alleges widespread fraud or errors changed the outcome of the 2020 U.S. Election”. Guy Rosen, Vice-President of integrity at Facebook tweeted their reason below.
“This is an emergency situation and we are taking appropriate emergency measures, including removing President Trump’s video. We removed it because on balance we believe it contributes to rather than diminishes the risk of ongoing violence.”
The video
The President’s video was his attempt to call for peace. He asserted his disbelief as to the reliability of the election. But ultimately, he was asking for a non-violent resolution to a messy situation. President Trump implored those at the Capitol building to leave. “We have to have law and order,” continuing with, “We don’t want anyone hurt”. The President ended the video by saying, “go home. And go home in peace.”
Once the protestors entered the grounds of the Capitol building Congress had to temporarily suspend. Lawmakers sheltered in place once individuals breached the building. People post claims of shots fired inside the Capitol building around the time of the video aired. Metro police confirmed these reports and stating that a went to the hospital with a gunshot wound. They have since issued a statement that the woman died from her injury.