It looks like social media moguls are resorting to a bit extreme measures to finally deal with President Trump’s incendiary comments and misinformation.
Right after the attack on Capitol this Wednesday, Trump posted a video that was removed from all the social media platforms and more than that. The video displayed Trump addressing the mob and encouraging them to stand against an election that was rigged.
What Happened?
Before the storming, Trump was communicating through his posts on Twitter and Facebook. He encouraged his supporters to come to DC and “Stop the Steal”.
He added that the city was full of people who believed in fair elections and could not bear an election to be stolen. The post included a label that redirected people to a page about election integrity at the Bipartisan Policy Center website.
The Response By Twitter and Facebook
On a video uploaded on Trump’s Facebook page, the same link existed. The video showed the President continuing to blatantly remark on the 2020 elections being rigged.
Facebook removed the video but by then, it was watched 2.7 million times. Initially blocking hashtags like ‘storm the Capitol’, Facebook placed a temporary ban on Trump’s page for 24 hours, during which he won’t be able to post anything.
Twitter also said that any or content that could encourage violence was against its policies. The company also said that it was looking for other ways to enforce such actions. Twitter removed two of Trump’s tweets which talked about fraud elections and encouraging his supporters. The video uploaded on Facebook was also there.
Twitter, initially restricting engagement on the post(likes, comments, etc.) took the video down as well, not before it was watched 13 million times.
Youtube’s Response
Youtube updated its policy in December, in which it restricted posts that claimed deceitful measures being taken to affect the elections. The company earlier faced backlash regarding the way they were handling such content.
Youtube allowed the videos to remain on other channels. It explained on its Twitter handle that “discussing the elections and voting results is allowed on Youtube.”
After the updated policies, the company says that its team of moderators is working to remove content and live streams that violate their policies, including content that instigates violence or contains highly violent material.
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