Twitter and Facebook on Wednesday locked the accounts of President Trump, which prevents him from posting messages to his more than 88 million followers on Twitter and 35 million followers on Facebook, after he published a string of inaccurate and inflammatory messages on a day of violence in the nation’s capital.

The moves were an unprecedented rebuke of Trump by the social media companies, which have long been megaphones for the President.

Twitter said Trump’s account would remain locked for 12 hours and the ban could be extended if several of his tweets that rejected the election results and appeared to incite violence were not deleted. Trump’s account will be permanently suspended if he continues violating Twitter’s policies against violent threats and election misinformation, the company added.

Facebook Inc and Instagram will extend a ban on Trump’s accounts for at least the next two weeks until the presidential transition is completed, chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg said.

Facebook had earlier barred Trump from publishing on the social network for 24 hours after finding that he had violated the company’s rules with two posts.

Instagram, the photo-sharing site owned by Facebook, said it would also lock Trump’s account for 24 hours.

Twitter said the risks of keeping Trump’s commentary live on its site had become too high.

“Our public interest policy — which has guided our enforcement action in this area for years — ends where we believe the risk of harm is higher,” a spokesman said.

The actions followed a torrent of criticism aimed at social media companies for their role in spreading misinformation and being a bullhorn for Trump after a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol building on Wednesday and halted the certification of Electoral College votes. For years, Trump had built his influence with posts on Twitter and Facebook. Since losing November’s election, he had used the platforms to challenge the election results and call them fraudulent.

On Twitter on Wednesday, users called for the company’s chief executive, Jack Dorsey, to take down President Trump’s account. Civil rights groups said action by social media companies against calls for political violence was “long overdue”. Even venture capitalists who had reaped riches from investing in social media urged Twitter and Facebook to do more.

“For four years you’ve rationalised this terror. Inciting violent treason is not a free speech exercise,” Chris Sacca, a tech investor who had invested in Twitter, wrote to Dorsey and Zuckerberg. “If you work at those companies, it’s on you too. Shut it down.”

Twitter, Facebook and others had previously resisted cracking down on Trump’s posts. While the platforms had started taking more steps against political misinformation before the election, they declined to remove his messages and instead took half measures.

New York Times News Service