Michelle Obama, former first lady of the United States and wife of Barack Obama, released a statement on Twitter about the riot at the Capitol Hill, and called on social media companies to ban President Trump permanently from their platforms.
“Now is the time for Silicon Valley companies to stop enabling this monstrous behavior — and go even further than they have already by permanent banning this man from their platforms,” she said.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter took the step of temporarily blocking Trump’s account on their platforms after his supporters stormed the Capitol building to protest the election results.
Twitter said it has locked Trump’s account for 12 hours, and warned for the first time that it may suspend him permanently. His account has however been unblock at the time of filing this report.
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO also blocked Trump from posting on its platform for 24 hours, the company said, after it removed a video he posted to his supporters who participated in the riot.
However the heat of the riot has prompted Facebook to block Trump’s accounts on the social media sites for a period of two weeks, perhaps until after his exit from office.