After Facebook and Twitter, Instagram suspends Donald Trump’s account for 24 hours amid US Capitol violence

Facebook-owned social media platform Instagram confirmed on January 6 that it is suspending United States President Donald Trump’s account for 24 hours. This came shortly after Facebook and Twitter said they were suspending the outgoing US president’s accounts over policy violations following the storming of the US Capitol by his supporters.

“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,” Facebook said.

“We are locking President Trump’s Instagram account for 24 hours as well,” Instagram’s head Adam Mosseri said in a Twitter post.

Twitter locked Trump out of his account for 12 hours and said that future violations by Trump could result in a permanent suspension. The company required the removal of three of Trump's 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; had they remained, Twitter had threatened to extend his suspension.

Axios cited a Snapchat spokesperson as confirming that the company had locked Trump's Snapchat account, making it the fourth major platform to take action against the outgoing president’s social media accounts.

So far, YouTube has not taken similar action to muzzle Trump.

Also Read | Twitter, Facebook suspend Donald Trump’s accounts amid Capitol violence

Trump had posted that video more than two hours after protesters entered the Capitol, interrupting lawmakers meeting in an extraordinary joint session to confirm the Electoral College results and President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.

Republican lawmakers and previous administration officials had begged Trump to give a statement to his supporters to quell the violence. The statement came as authorities struggled to take control of a chaotic situation at the Capitol that led to the evacuation of lawmakers and the death of at least one person.

In pictures: Pro-Donald Trump mob storms US Capitol building to overturn election