Facebook Inc., Twitter Inc. and YouTube have limited posts from President Trump, and Twitter has temporarily locked his account, as the social-media platforms worked to tamp down content that could further fuel protests 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 that it limited the ability of users to share content including a video about the protests from President Trump due to a “risk of violence,” and said 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.
“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. “We removed it because on balance we believe it contributes to rather than diminishes the risk of ongoing violence.”
