Citing repeated and inaccurate assertions that he had been cheated out of the election and that he incited his supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol, a number of major social media platforms have banned President Donald Trump from posting, or have limited his ability to do so.
Here's a running list of all the sites that have banned Trump; we'll update this as more information is available.
On Thursday, Jan. 7, Facebook became the first major site to ban Trump. In a blog post, CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote "We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period 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."
It is unclear if the ban will continue past Inauguration Day (Jan 20).
As Instagram is owned by Facebook, it instituted as similar ban as its parent company at the same time.
While not the first, Twitter temporarily — then permanently — suspended Trump's personal account, and then removed a number of tweets from the @POTUS and @Whitehouse accounts. Twitter also suspended @TeamTrump, the official account of his re-election campaign, as well as that of Gary Coby, the campaign’s digital director.
Prior to the ban, Twitter had been applying warning labels to Trump's tweets where he inaccurately disputed the results of the election.
After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence.https://t.co/CBpE1I6j8YJanuary 8, 2021
As of Friday (Jan. 9), Reddit banned the subreddit group r/DonaldTrump. “This community was banned due to a violation of Reddit’s rules against inciting violence,” reads a notice on the page. While not an official page for Trump, it had roughly 52,000 members.
This past June, Reddit had banned a number of other subreddits, including r/The_Donald, for repeatedly posting hate speech.
Twitch
On Jan. 7, Twitch also disabled Trump's account. “Given the current extraordinary circumstances and the President’s incendiary rhetoric, we believe this is a necessary step to protect our community and prevent Twitch from being used to incite further violence.” said a Twitch spokesperson in a statement.
While older posts are still visible, Trump is banned from posting new content. The company says it will reassess Trump’s account after he leaves office.
Twitch imposed a two-week ban on Trump's account in June, but reactivated his account following the removal of "hateful" content, specifically a rebroadcast of Trump rallies.
YouTube
On January 12, YouTube removed newly posted videos from Trump's official YouTube channel and placed a 7-day freeze on the account, meaning that no new videos or livestreams can be posted. It also suspended comments indefinitely.
Last week, YouTube deleted a video from Trump disputing the election results, and telling the rioters at the Capitol building that they were "very special" but that they should go home. At the time, YouTube said it would "allow copies of this video if uploaded with additional context and sufficient educational, documentary, scientific, or artistic (EDSA) value," said a spokesperson to Business Insider.
YouTube removed podcasts from Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani as well as the YouTube account for the War Room podcast, run by former Trump adviser Steve Bannon.
In a statement, YouTube said it had "terminated Steve Bannon’s channel 'War room' and one associated channel for repeatedly violating our Community Guidelines."
Snapchat
As of Jan. 14, Snapchat has permanently closed Trump's account. Last week, following the violent mob that took over the Capitol building, Snapchat locked Trump's accounts indefinitely, but left open the possibility that it could be reactivated. Now, through, it's permanent.
"Last week we announced an indefinite suspension of President Trump’s Snapchat account, and have been assessing what long term action is in the best interest of our Snapchat community," said the company in a statement. "In the interest of public safety, and based on his attempts to spread misinformation, hate speech, and incite violence, which are clear violations of our guidelines, we have made the decision to permanently terminate his account."
This past June, Snapchat stopped promoting Trump in its "Discover" section of its app after Trump tweeter that George Floyd protesters should be "greeted with the most vicious dogs and ominous weapons, I have ever seen." In a statement in June, Snapchat said that it would not "amplify voices who incite racial violence and injustice."
TikTok
Considering he has been trying to ban it since July, it's not surprising that Trump doesn't have an account on TikTok. Nevertheless, the company said on Jan. 7 that it would ban certain videos of Trump addressing the rioters at the U.S. Capitol and redirect hashtags used by rioters.
Discord
On Jan. 8, the gaming-centric Discord banned the server The Donald, according to journalist Casey Newton. This server was linked to pro-Trump message boards, including the now-banned The_Donald on Reddit.
Shopify
The e-commerce platform de-platformed two of Trump's online stores (donaldjtrump.com and the Trump Store) on Friday, Jan. 8. "Shopify does not tolerate actions that invite violence. Based on recent events, we have determined that the actions by President Donald J. Trump violate our acceptable Use Policy, which prohibits promotion or support of organizations, platforms or people that threaten or condone violence to further a cause," the company said in a statement to a reporter at the Financial Times. "As a result, we have terminated stores affiliated with President Trump."
Parler
Parler, which was touted as a conservative-friendly alternative to Twitter, was removed from both Apple's App Store and Google Play for not adhering to those companies' terms of service with regards to public safety and harmful content.
Amazon, too, said it would no longer host Parler on Amazon Web Services, also citing violations of the web hosting terms of service against violent content. This ban went into effect Sunday night (Jan. 10) just before midnight, effectively shutting down its app and website.
In explaining their bans, all three companies cited numerous posts on Parler advocating violence, as well as Parler's inability to monitor and remove said content.
In a statement on Parler, CEO John Matze called it a "coordinated attack" by the tech companies.
