Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. removed posts from President Trump and temporarily locked his accounts, as the social-media platforms worked to tamp down content that could further fuel riots in the U.S. capital.
The companies on Wednesday also limited other posts that they deemed to be inciting violence or undermining the electoral process, in what amounted to the industry’s strongest actions to date to rein in controversial content on their platform.
Twitter first said it limited the ability of users to share content, including a video about the riots from Mr. Trump due to a “risk of violence,” adding that it was taking other measures to slow the spread of potentially dangerous content. Twitter later said it had required the removal of several of Mr. Trump’s posts, including the one with the video, saying that they represented “repeated and severe violations” of its policies. The company said it had locked his account for 12 hours and warned that further violations of its rules could lead it to permanently suspend Mr. Trump’s account.
Facebook and YouTube also took down Mr. Trump’s video entirely on Wednesday afternoon, and Facebook removed a subsequent post from the president and said it was blocking him from posting for 24 hours on both its main platform and its Instagram unit because of policy violations.
“This is an emergency situation and we are taking appropriate emergency measures, including removing President Trump’s video,” Guy Rosen, Facebook’s vice president of integrity, wrote on Twitter earlier Wednesday. “We removed it because on balance we believe it contributes to rather than diminishes the risk of ongoing violence.”
