Facebook Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Thursday that U.S. President Donald Trump will be blocked from Facebook and Instagram "indefinitely," following the storming of the Capitol by pro-Trump protesters the previous day.
Calling the risk of allowing Trump to use his accounts on the platforms during this period "simply too great," Zuckerberg said in his statement, "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 announcement means that Trump will not be able to post messages using these accounts at least until the presidency has been transferred to Democrat Joe Biden on Jan. 20.
It is the first time for Trump, who took office in 2017, to have his Facebook and Instagram accounts suspended.
Facebook's CEO made the decision after Twitter Inc. said Wednesday it had locked Trump's account for 12 hours over tweets he posted amid escalating protests by his supporters at the U.S. Capitol.
Although Trump urged his supporters to exercise restraint after the violence spiraled out of control, he repeated his baseless assertion that the November presidential election was "fraudulent."
In a tweet, he even seemed to justify the violence and chaos that took place, saying that "these are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long."
In the Nov. 3 election, Biden, 78, captured a total of 306 electoral votes compared to 232 for the 74-year-old Republican Trump.