Twitter, Facebook freeze Trump accounts as tech giants respond to storming of U.S. capitol

By Elizabeth Culliford, Katie Paul and Joseph Menn

(Reuters) -Twitter and Facebook Inc on Wednesday temporarily locked the accounts of U.S. President Donald Trump, as tech giants scrambled to crack down on his baseless claims about the U.S. presidential elections amid riots at the U.S. Capitol.

Twitter hid and required the removal of three of Trump’s tweets “as a result of the unprecedented and ongoing violent situation in Washington, D.C.,” after pro-Trump protesters stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to force Congress to block the appointment of President-elect Joe Biden.

Facebook later tweeted it would block Trump’s page from posting for 24 hours due to two policy violations.

Twitter locked Trump’s account for 12 hours and said that if the tweets are not removed, the account would remain locked, meaning the president would be unable to tweet from @realDonaldTrump.

(Reporting by Elizabeth Culliford in New York, Joseph Menn in San Francisco, Katie Paul in Palto Alto and Paresh Dave in Oakland; Editing by Lincoln Feast)