Selena Gomez slammed social media platforms and their executives for facilitating the behavior which led to the Washington, D.C. riots on Wednesday (January 6, 2021).
Outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump was accused of inciting the protest at a rally earlier in the day and was slow in officially calling for the activists to leave the Capitol building, where politicians had gathered to certify Joe Biden’s win over Trump in November’s (2020) general election.
One female protestor was shot and killed by a law enforcement official during the unrest.
As the drama unfolded, Selena took headed online to slam bosses at sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, tweeting: “Today is the result of allowing people with hate in their hearts to use platforms that should be used to bring together and allow people to build community.
“Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google, Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg, Jack Dorsey, Sundar Pichai, Susan Wojcicki – you have all failed the American people today, and I hope you’re going to fix things moving forward.”
Shortly after Trump posted his video message to the group – in which he continued to make allegations of election fraud and insisted the vote had been stolen from him – Twitter locked his account for 12 hours and warned any further violations would “result in permanent suspension”.
Officials from the platform wrote: “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.”
Facebook and YouTube also removed Trump’s video to diminish “the risk of ongoing violence,” while both Facebook and Instagram have banned him from posting for 24 hours.
