Twitter has blocked the account of United States President Donald Trump for at least 12 hours while Facebook blocked him for 24 hours over policy violations.
The decisions mark a major departure for the companies, which have until now have given Trump special protections that stop him being punished for breaking their rules.
We’ve assessed two policy violations against President Trump’s Page which will result in a 24-hour feature block, meaning he will lose the ability to post on the platform during that time.
As a result of the unprecedented and ongoing violent situation in Washington, D.C., we have required the removal of three @realDonaldTrump Tweets that were posted earlier today for repeated and severe violations of our Civic Integrity policy.This means that the account of @realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours following the removal of these Tweets. If the Tweets are not removed, the account will remain locked.Future violations of the Twitter Rules, including our Civic Integrity or Violent Threats policies, will result in permanent suspension of the @realDonaldTrump account.
Trump has repeatedly broken Twitter’s rules, but the company has long maintained that Trump’s status as a newsworthy person and elected official mean that the posts should not be removed or hidden in the same way.
In the posts, Trump asked those involved to go home but called them “very special” and said, “We love you”. He also repeated his claim that he won last year’s election.
More: Independent.co.uk