Platforms take action against Trump after Capitol mob attack – The Verge

Elon Musk says he’s letting Donald Trump back on Twitter

2022-11-19T21:26:55-05:00

Donald Trump is allowed to rejoin Twitter, Elon Musk has announced. Musk justified that decision based on the results of his own personal Twitter poll. The @realDonaldTrump account and its tweets are fully visible again, just days after Trump confirmed he will run for president again in 2024.

Shortly after taking control of the social network, Musk said he wouldn't be reinstating any banned accounts until the company had set up and convened a content moderation council with "widely diverse viewpoints."

Instead, on Friday evening, as people drifted off for the pre-Thanksgiving weekend, he decided to poll his own followers on Twitter. "Reins …

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Facebook has no reason to ever resolve the Trump ban

2021-05-05T14:10:49-04:00

After months of waiting, today Facebook's Oversight Board finally handed down the biggest ruling of its short existence - the question of whether to uphold the ban on Donald Trump. The verdict? Send the question back to Facebook, and give them six more months to decide.

In fairness, it wasn't quite that bad. The initial ban was upheld, and the board made specific rulings on the questions of whether Trump's posts were inciting violence, and whether world leaders should get special treatment. For now, Facebook can continue to block Trump, which means that on the face of it, this is a win for anti-Trumpers. Unless you're visiting his self-host …

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Apple reportedly denies Parler’s App Store appeal, citing derogatory terms and ‘Nazi symbols’

2021-03-10T17:08:48-05:00

Apple has reportedly denied social media company Parler's bid to reenter the iOS App Store, saying its platform hasn't addressed problems with offensive content. Bloomberg reported the news earlier today, quoting a message reportedly sent on February 25th.

According to Bloomberg, Apple said that Parler's latest community guidelines still didn't meet its standards. "Simple searches reveal highly objectionable content, including easily identified offensive uses of derogatory terms regarding race, religion and sexual orientation, as well as Nazi symbols," it reportedly told Parler. "For these reasons your app cannot be returned to the App Stor …

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Trump’s campaign app was suspended from the Google Play Store because it didn’t work

2021-02-17T19:47:22-05:00

Google removed former president Donald Trump's 2020 campaign app from Google's Play Store earlier Wednesday. It wasn't removed for any of the many other reasons that Trump has been removed from the world's largest platforms, but rather because it just didn't work, Android Police reports.

Prior to its suspension, the app provided campaign news, an event schedule, and ways to donate to the campaign, but at some point, it stopped working, prompting Google to take it down. Android Police confirmed that the app was non-functional before Google removed it. When Android Police tested the app, it was "unable to load content, reporting a network err …

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Facebook’s Trump ban will be reviewed by its new Oversight Board

2021-01-21T12:28:29-05:00

Facebook vice president Nick Clegg says the company is referring its decision to indefinitely suspend former President Trump from its platform to its newly established Oversight Board for a complete review. Trump's Facebook account was suspended indefinitely on January 7th after he incited his followers to attack the US Capitol on January 6th. Six people died in the ensuing riots.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said at the time that "the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service… are simply too great."

"We believe our decision was necessary and right," Clegg said in a statement. "Given its significance, we think it is im …

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Facebook suspends ads for weapon accessories until at least January 22nd

2021-01-16T15:27:26-05:00

Facebook has updated its Inauguration Day preparations to include a temporary ban on ads that promote weapon accessories and protective equipment at least through January 22nd "out of an abundance of caution," the company said in a new blog post Saturday. "We already prohibit ads for weapons, ammunition and weapon enhancements like silencers. But we will now also prohibit ads for accessories such as gun safes, vests and gun holsters in the US," the statement reads.

The ban comes after Facebook was criticized for allowing posts across its platforms that promoted and organized the deadly January 6th attack on the Capitol building. The ads fo …

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Some Twitter employees have reportedly locked their accounts fearing reprisal from Trump supporters

2021-01-16T12:02:00-05:00

Some Twitter employees have set their accounts to private and scrubbed their online biographies over concerns they may be targeted by supporters of President Trump, the New York Times reported. In addition, some Twitter executives have been assigned personal security as the company reckons with its decision to bar one of its loudest voices.

Trump's @realDonaldTrump account was permanently suspended from Twitter January 8th, "due to the risk of further incitement of violence," Twitter said in its statement. The president told supporters at a rally just before an attack on the Capitol January 6th they would "have to show strength," and "fight …

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Unlike Airbnb, VRBO reportedly won’t cancel reservations in DC during inauguration week

2021-01-16T11:00:09-05:00

Short-term rental site VRBO does not plan to cancel reservations in the DC area during the inauguration next week, even though competitor Airbnb has already done so. First reported by BuzzFeed News, VRBO said in a blog post Friday afternoon that it was "encouraging hosts to cancel bookings during this time," if they believed a guest was violating its policies, but stopped short of a blanket cancellation.

Following the January 6th attack on the Capitol that left six people dead, DC-area officials said in a joint statement that they were "encouraging Americans not to come to Washington, D.C. and to instead participate virtually" in the inaugu …

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Facebook is blocking events near the White House through Inauguration Day

2021-01-15T19:31:56-05:00

Facebook won't let people create events that take place "in close proximity" to the White House, the US Capitol building, or any state capitol buildings through Inauguration Day, the company announced on Friday. The move builds upon Facebook's previously announced Inauguration Day preparations aiming to prevent the platform from being used to organize a violent event like the January 6th attack on the US Capitol.

Facebook is also doing a "secondary review" of all inauguration-related events and will remove those that violate the platform's rules. The company is also continuing a policy that blocks pages and accounts based outside the US fro …

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Twitter says a new video from Trump doesn’t break the rules

2021-01-13T20:05:06-05:00

On January 8th, Twitter permanently banned President Donald Trump, and proceeded to play whack-a-mole as he attempted to dodge that ban by using different Twitter accounts, each of which Twitter suspended in turn.

And yet less than a week later, a Trump video has been posted on the official @WhiteHouse account delivering a new video speech. The speech is not inflammatory - quite the opposite. It features Trump denouncing violence, lawbreaking, and vandalism.

It contains messages many might have hoped Trump would issue immediately during or perhaps even before the attack on the US Capitol, to avoid the violence and the five deaths that occu …

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