Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts blocked 'indefinitely'

skynews

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Donald Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts have been suspended "indefinitely", at least until Joe Biden replaces him as president on 20 January, Mark Zuckerberg has said.

The social media boss posted on

Facebook

to condemn the "shocking events" in Washington DC.

He said they "clearly demonstrate" that

Mr Trump

"intends to use his remaining time in office to undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power".

Mr Zuckerberg accused the president of "using our platform to incite violent insurrection against a democratically elected government".

Image:Mr Zuckerberg said the risks of the president being allowed to post were 'simply too great'

He wrote in a statement: "We believe the risks of allowing the president to continue to use our services are simply too great.

"Therefore 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."

Twitter

suspended the president's account for 12 hours following the violence, but he was able to convey a message

through a member of White House staff early on Thursday.

Deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino posted on Trump's behalf: "Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20th.

Image:Pro-Trump protesters storm the US capitol

"I have always said we would continue our fight to ensure that only legal votes were counted. While this represents the end of the greatest first term in presidential history, it's only the beginning of our fight to Make America Great Again!"

Both Facebook and Twitter

took Mr Trump's accounts offline

after his supporters stormed Capitol buildings.

They removed several posts deemed to incite violence and others that made false claims about the election result and praised his supporters for the march to protest against his defeat.

The chaos in Washington resulted in the deaths of four people and arrests of 52.