Twitter locked the account of President Donald Trump on Wednesday for what it called “repeated and severe violations of our Civic integrity policy.”
In a series of posts, Twitter said it is requiring the removal of three tweets, including a video message in which Trump repeated his unproven claims of election fraud, and that the account will remain locked for 12 hours after the removal of those tweets.
Twitter said that, “Future violations of the Twitter Rules, including our Civic Integrity or Violent Threats policies, will result in permanent suspension of [Trump’s] account.”
Facebook and Twitter both removed a short video by Trump in which he urged supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday to “go home” while also repeating false accusations about the integrity of the presidential election.
Trump posted the clip to social media instead of making a televised statement.
YouTube also said it has removed the Trump video for spreading false claims about widespread election fraud. But a copy of the video was still easy to find as of Wednesday afternoon.
Guy Rosen, Facebook’s vice president of integrity, said on Twitter Wednesday that the video was removed because it “contributes to rather than diminishes the risk of ongoing violence.”
“This is an emergency situation and we are taking appropriate emergency measures, including removing President Trump’s video,” Rosen said on Twitter.
Twitter initially left the video up but blocked people from being able to retweet it or comment on it. Only later in the day did the platform delete it entirely.
The video was issued more than two hours after protesters began storming the Capitol on Wednesday as lawmakers convened for an extraordinary joint session to confirm the Electoral College results and President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.
Trump opened his video saying, “I know your pain. I know your hurt. But you have to go home now.”
After repeating false claims about voter fraud affecting the election, Trump went on to say: “We can’t play into the hands of these people. We have to have peace. So go home. We love you. You’re very special.”
Republican lawmakers and previous administration officials had begged Trump to give a statement to his supporters to quell the violence. The statement came as authorities struggled to take control of a chaotic situation at the Capitol that led to the evacuation of lawmakers.