Facebook, YouTube, Shopify All Move to Deplatform Trump and Questions About 2020 Election

In response to the breach of the Capitol building, several online platforms have deplatformed Trump.

Facebook began by removing Trump’s video asking protesters to return home with peace and joy in their hearts and has now banned Trump’s accounts from posting at least until the post-inauguration transition is complete.

Zukerberg posted the following Wednesday:

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Online store platform Shopify booted Trump’s store. From TechCrunch:
Shopify, which hosted shops related to Trump’s campaign paraphernalia and the outgoing President’s personal brand, TrumpStore, has apparently taken down both of those properties.“Shopify does not tolerate actions that incite violence. Based on recent events, we have determined that the actions by President Donald J. Trump violate our Acceptable Use Policy, which prohibits promotion or support of organizations, platforms or people that threaten or condone violence to further a cause,” a Shopify spokesperson wrote in a statement to TechCrunch. “As a result, we have terminated stores affiliated with President Trump.”

YouTube hasn’t deplatformed Trump directly, but they’ve doubled down on their promise to penalize channels that post “false claims,” which is awfully subjective.

Trump was temporarily blocked from using his Twitter account but indicated if Trump has one more strike, he’ll be permanently banned from the site.

Tags: 2020 Election, Facebook, Social Media, Trump 2020

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