Facebook bans Donald Trump for two weeks, perhaps indefinitely

Donald Trump has build an impressive social media machine.

Facebook will block President Donald Trump from posting on its platform for at least two weeks and perhaps indefinitely, CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in is own Facebook post Thursday.

The ban means Trump won’t be able to use the platform at least through the end of his presidency.

“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,” Zuckerberg wrote.

“We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great. 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,” he continued.

Both Facebook and Twitter removed posts from the President Wednesday as chaos was unraveling in Washington D.C. Trump’s supporters breathed the Capitol building as Congress was convened in a Joint Session to certify President-elect Biden’s victory.

The posts encouraged rioters to be peaceful and urged them to “go home,” but many thought the posts were doing more harm than good because they continued to foment baseless claims of voter fraud and a stolen election.

“His decision to use his platform to condone rather than condemn the actions of his supporters at the Capitol building has rightly disturbed people in the US and around the world. We removed these statements yesterday because we judged that their effect — and likely their intent — would be to provoke further violence,” Zuckerberg said.

Trump for the first time Thursday acknowledged Biden’s victory, but he did so with the same false rhetoric about it being a stolen election.

“Following the certification of the election results by Congress, the priority for the whole country must now be to ensure that the remaining 13 days and the days after inauguration pass peacefully and in accordance with established democratic norms,” Zuckerberg said.

“Over the last several years, we have 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. But the current context is now fundamentally different, involving use of our platform to incite violent insurrection against a democratically elected government.”

Twitter blocked Trump from its platform late Wednesday for what it said would be a 12-hour ban. It appears though, that the ban is still in place. If Facebook indefinitely blocks Trump from its platform, it will be the first to permanently block the President.