Donald Trump has been blocked from using Facebook and Instagram “indefinitely and at least for the next two weeks”, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has said.
In a statement, Zuckerberg said: “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.”
“We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great,” he added. “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.”
The president has also been blocked from Facebook-owned Instagram “indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks,” according to Adam Mosseri, the head of the company.
Trump’s Facebook page was initially blocked for 24 hours on Wednesday, soon after his Twitter account was locked and three of his tweets were removed.
Issuing its first-ever ban on the outgoing president, Twitter added he will face a “permanent suspension” from the platform if the offending tweets are not deleted.
In one video, Trump addressed his supporters, who had clashed with police in Washington DC forcing a lockdown at the US Capitol building.
In the video the president told protesters that they “have to go home now”, adding “we don’t want anybody hurt”, but he also claimed that “this was a fraudulent election”.
Twitter had earlier removed the retweet, like and reply functions on the video.
Facebook followed, saying in a statement: “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.”
The latest move by the social media giant means Trump will not be able to use either Facebook or Instagram during his time as president, as president-elect Joe Biden will be inaugurated on Jan 20.
Four people were killed on Wednesday after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol building, including a woman shot by law enforcement.
They did so after being directly urged by the president to march on Capitol Hill during a speech made earlier that day, in which he pledged to “never concede” and that “theft” had been involved in the outcome of the general election.