Facebook, Twitter, Google Face Calls to Ban Trump Accounts

Facebook Inc., Twitter Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google are facing mounting pressure from lawmakers, activists and civil rights groups to enact tougher policies and more forcefully purge misleading content and accounts -- including the ones held by President Donald Trump -- after a mob of pro-Trump protesters stormed the U.S. Capitol.

Coinciding with the imminent shift of power in Washington to the Democrats, social networks have taken their most aggressive steps yet to muzzle Trump over the last two days. But civil rights groups and lawmakers say the internet companies allowed misleading content to proliferate for too long, resulting in dangerous -- and deadly -- consequences.

“Despite repeated red flags and demands for fixes, these companies failed to act until well after blood and glass lay in the halls of the Capitol,” Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, said in an interview. “Yesterday’s events will renew and focus the need for Congress to reform Big Tech’s privileges and obligations.”

Some lawmakers are considering offering measures that would require more transparency about political ads on the internet, such as who paid for them. Civil rights and other advocates say they hope public outrage over the insurrection will spur internet companies to bolster their voluntary efforts to tamp down online propaganda.

“We’re going to be talking about how to regulate and rein these companies in,” said Jessica González, co-chief executive officer of Free Press, which pushes for media accountability. “But gosh, it shouldn’t be this hard to do the right thing.”

A large group of Trump supporters, with the president’s encouragement, stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, delaying the certification of Joe Biden’s election, which Trump has repeatedly and without basis called fraudulent. Trump had used Twitter, Facebook and Google’s YouTube to urge supporters to strike out, and for hours said nothing as the mob grew violent. Once he urged the crowd to be peaceful, he repeated his claim that the election had been stolen from him.

Facebook said Thursday it was extending a 24-hour ban on Trump’s posts for at least two weeks until Biden takes office. Twitter suspended Trump’s account for 12 hours on the condition that he remove three tweets, including a Wednesday video in which Trump expressed his love for the insurgents and called the election fraudulent. A spokesperson confirmed that Trump had deleted the offending tweets, giving him access to his account. But Twitter warned that Trump could receive a permanent suspension if he continued to break its rules.

In his first tweet since gaining access to his account, Trump on Thursday evening posted a video in which he condemned the riot by his supporters at the U.S. Capitol and said he would prepare for a smooth presidential transition.

YouTube also removed Trump’s Wednesday video. The company said he will accumulate “strikes” against his account for continued violations, which could block him from uploading content in the future. Twitch, the live-streaming service owned by Amazon.com Inc., disabled Trump’s account indefinitely while Snap Inc. banned the president from posting on its Snapchat app until further notice.

The bans, while unprecedented, were too little and too late for some. “Facebook has finally taken the long-overdue step of blocking the President’s account -- at least for the next 13 days -- but I’m deeply frustrated that it took a group of domestic terrorists storming the Capitol before they were willing to do so,” House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, said in a statement on Thursday. “I also can’t help but wonder if the decision was an opportunistic one, motivated by the news of a Democratically controlled Congress.”

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