Facebook, Snapchat ban Trump indefinitely after Capitol Hill violence

But he is back on Twitter

Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat have banned US President Donald Trump from posting any new messages through his accounts after his supporters stormed the Capitol building on Wednesday while lawmakers were attempting to tally votes for the election.

However, Trump is back on Twitter after being locked out of his account for 12 hours.

Twitter required Trump to delete three tweets the company said violated its policies

"After the Tweets were removed and the subsequent 12-hour period expired, access to @realDonaldTrump was restored," the company said.

Twitter warned that it would "permanently" ban Trump's account if he violates the platform's rules again.

"Any future violations of the Twitter Rules, including our Civic Integrity or Violent Threats policies, will result in permanent suspension of the @realDonaldTrump account."

Facebook, on the other hand, decided to block Trump's access to the platform indefinitely, after temporarily locking his account initially on Wednesday night.

In an online post on Thursday, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that Trump's accounts on Facebook and Instagram were being banned "indefinitely" because "the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great".

Zuckerberg stated that the ban would remain "for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete."

"Over the last several years, we have allowed President Trump to use our platform consistent with our own rules, at times removing content or labelling his posts when they violate our policies," Zuckerberg noted.

"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," he added.

The bans came after critics said that social media platforms had failed to prevent the misinformation that led to violence in Washington DC on Wednesday.

The riot erupted as pro-Trump supporters interrupted a joint congressional session being held in the US Capitol building to confirm Joe Biden's victory in the US presidential elections.

After protestors entered the building, Trump posted a video on Facebook and Twitter, repeating claims of voter fraud, and telling supporters "I know your pain. I know you're hurt. But you have to go home now."

He said "we don't want anybody hurt," and "we can't play into the hands of these people."

Trump also told the crowd: "We love you. You're very special."

Facebook, on Thursday, took a number of measures, including the unprecedented decision to remove President Trump's video.

Guy Rosen, Facebook's vice-president of integrity, explained in a tweet that the video was removed because it was it was contributing to, rather than lessening, the risk of ongoing violence.

Smaller social networking platforms also announced action against Trump. Twitch, the video streaming service owned by Amazon, has suspended Trump's account indefinitely, while Shopify removed all sites related to Donald Trump's campaign.

"Shopify does not tolerate actions that incite violence," the company said.

Snapchat also blocked the Trump from posting new messages.

Update 11/1/2021: Twitter has now followed suit.

Update 13/1/2021: YouTube has also banned Trump.