International News

What’s Happening at the US Capitol? Why Did Twitter Rid of Trump’s Tweets?



Pro-Trump violent protesters entered the US Capitol on Wednesday with the attempt to overturn the November 3, 2020, presidential election results as Congress was set to confirm US Democratic President-elect Joe Biden victory.

As stated in the Washington Post, the Senate has stopped its proceedings as they were informed protesters were in the building and the House doors also were closed.

According to the Washington Post, protesters were able to breach security and successfully enter Capitol Building, and “a woman was fatally shot inside the U.S. Capitol after the mob breached the building. The circumstances were not clear.”

In an update, it was stated in the Washington Post that the woman was identified as Ashli Babbitt, a 35-year-old California native, and an Air Force veteran.

Furthermore, in addition to the fatal shooting incident, in the Wednesday riot that happened in the Capitol, three people died of medical emergencies and details of the victims were not released during the Contee and Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D)’s conference on Wednesday.

In addition, 14 DC officers were injured and police have made at least 52 arrests according to the Contee.

Among the 52 arrests, 4 were arrested for carrying pistols without licenses, 1 was arrested for possession of a prohibited weapon while 47 were arrested for curfew violations and unlawful entry.

Also, 26 out of the 52 arrests were made on the US Capitol grounds.

At the conference, Washington Post wrote,  Browser (D) has “declared a public emergency in the city until January 21, to “extend and security through the inauguration,” which gives her more authority to draw on resources to maintain city security. Inauguration Day is Jan. 20.”

In a tweet of President-Elect Biden, he made it clear with his statement “Let me be very clear: the scenes of chaos at the Capitol do not represent who we are. ”

“Let me be very clear: the scenes of chaos at the Capitol do not represent who we are. What we are seeing is a small number of extremists dedicated to lawlessness. This is not dissent, it’s disorder. It borders on sedition, and it must end. Now.”

-Joe Biden  on Twitter

In a separate tweet, Biden has called Trump “to go on national television now to fulfill his oath and defend the Constitution by demanding an end to this siege.”

Biden added in his tweet, “America is so much better than what we’re seeing today.” and ” Our way is plain: It is the way of democracy — of lawfulness, and of respect — respect for each other, and for our nation.”

Biden also wrote in his tweet  “Today is a reminder, a painful one, that democracy is fragile. To preserve it requires people of goodwill, leaders with the courage to stand up, who are devoted not to the pursuit of power and personal interest at any cost, but to the common good.”

Also on Twitter, US Vice President Mike Pence wrote in his tweet that “the violence and destruction taking place at the US Capitol Must Stop and it Must Stop Now. Anyone involved must respect Law Enforcement officers and immediately leave the building.”

The VP mentions that they “will always be grateful for the men and women who stayed at their post to defend this historic place.”

“To those who wreaked havoc in our Capitol today, you did not win. Violence never wins. Freedom wins. And this is still the People’s House,” VP Pence added.

Twitter and Facebook temporarily blocked Trump from posting support for rioters who stormed at the Capitol Building.

Due to the violent situation in the Capitol, Twitter has removed three Trump tweets that were posted earlier for repeated and severe violations of their Civic Integrity policy.

With that, Trump’s Twitter account has been locked for 12 hours and will be remained locked if the tweets will not be removed.

Twitter added that future violations will result in the permanent suspension of Trumps’s account with the statement “Future violations of the Twitter Rules, including our Civic Integrity or Violent Threats policies, will result in permanent suspension of the @realDonaldTrump account.”

Here’s a screenshot of Trump’s Twitter account showing unavailable tweets removed by Twitter:

These are a few of the last tweets of Trump before Twitter has blocked the account from posting:

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1346912780700577792

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1346904110969315332

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1346845109736845318

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1346822958006886400

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1346822610957561858

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1346818855298072576

According to Facebook’s Vice President of Integrity Guy Rosen, he said that the situation is an emergency and they are taking appropriate measures which include the removal of Trump’s video for they believe it contributes to rather than diminishes the risk of the ongoing violence.


According to Facebook, they have assesses two policy violations against Trump’s page resulting in a 24-hour feature block losing the ability to post on the platform during the said time.

“Let us speak for the leadership team in saying what so many of us are feeling. We are appalled by the violence at the Capitol today. We are treating these events as an emergency. Our Elections Operations Center has already been active in anticipation of the Georgia elections and the vote by Congress to certify the election, and we are monitoring activity on our platform in real time.”

-Facebook Statement

Here are the actions the social media giant is doing:

  • Facebook has been searching for and removing the following content:
    • Praise and support of the storming of the US Capitol
    • Calls to bring weapons to locations across the US — not just in Washington but anywhere in the US — including protests
    • Incitement or encouragement of the events at the Capitol, including videos and photos from the protestors. At this point, they represent the promotion of criminal activity that violates our policies.
    • Calls for protests — even peaceful ones — if they violate the curfew in DC
    • Attempts to restage violence tomorrow or in the coming days

  • The said video was removed on Facebook and Instagram:
    • Video of President Trump speaking about the protests and his subsequent post about the election results.
  • Facebook is updating its label on posts across our platforms that attempt to delegitimize the election results.
    • The new text reads: Joe Biden has been elected President with results that were certified by all 50 states. The US has laws, procedures, and established institutions to ensure the peaceful transfer of power after an election.”

Facebook added, “We’re continuing to monitor the situation and will take additional measures if necessary to keep people safe.”

Former US Presidents Statement

Through Twitter, former presidents of the US have released their statement about what happened at the Capitol:

Source: Washington Post, Facebook Newsroom

How do you feel about this?

Happy
0
Sad
0
Shocked
0
Not Sure
0

You may also like

Leave a reply