The US Capitol siege by President Donald Trump supporters on Wednesday has set off a range of responses and actions from big tech companies, including deleting the infamous Trump response video and temporarily freezing Trump's social media accounts.
Prior to the historic Capitol siege that left four people dead, according to CBS News, and the Capitol building ransacked, the biggest action tech companies like Facebook and Twitter took to moderate Trump was to add fact-checking lines on some of his baseless claims regarding topics like mail-in ballot fraud.
However, following the riots, more big tech platforms have taken serious and actionable steps towards temporarily quieting Trump, although people calling to ban the president from social media platforms say these short-term freezes may not be enough.
See all of the actions various companies have taken in response to the Capitol siege:
YouTube
YouTube has removed a video of Trump disputing the 2020 presidential election results while telling rioters "we love you, you're very special" but "go home in peace."
Farshad Shadloo, YouTube spokesperson, told Insider in an email on Wednesday that the video violated YouTube's policies surrounding "content that alleges widespread fraud or errors changed the outcome of the 2020 US."
"We do allow copies of this video if uploaded with additional context and sufficient educational, documentary, scientific, or artistic (EDSA) value," Shadloo continued.
Following this removal, on Thursday, YouTube announced it would give channels a "strike"if its videos violated the social media platform's policies. Following the first strike, a channel will be banned from posting for a week. A second strike within 90 days will result in a two-week ban. The third and final strike, if done within 90 days, will result in a permanent ban.
The strike policy announcement came out of the "disturbing events that transpired yesterday,"a YouTube spokesperson told Insider.
The same Trump video that YouTube removed was also removed by Facebook on Wednesday. According to a tweet by Guy Rosen, Facebook's vice president of integrity, the video removal decision was made "because on balance we believe it contributes to rather than diminishes the risk of ongoing violence."
On Thursday, Facebook went one step further and decided to freeze Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts "indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete," Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's CEO, wrote in a post.
"His decision to use his platform to condone rather than condemn the actions of his supporters at the Capitol building has rightly disturbed people in the US and around the world," Zuckerberg wrote. "We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great."
Snapchat
Snapchat has also "locked" Trump's account following the Capitol siege, a Snap spokesperson told Insider on Thursday.
This isn't the first action Snap has taken against Trump. In June, the social media platform stopped promoting Trump's account in its Discover section after he called for violence against protestors amid demonstrations following George Floyd's death.
"We will not amplify voices who incite racial violence and injustice by giving them free promotion on Discover,"a Snap spokesperson told Insider in June. "Racial violence and injustice have no place in our society and we stand together with all who seek peace, love, equality, and justice in America."
Shopify
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On Thursday, Shopify removed stores with ties to Trump, including shop.donaldjtrump.com and trumpstore.com.
"Shopify does not tolerate actions that incite violence,"a Shopify spokesperson said in a statement to Insider on Thursday."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. As a result, we have terminated stores affiliated with President Trump."
Twitch
Twitch has also frozen Trump's account, and will make further decisions about his account after Biden is inaugurated, The Verge reported.
Previously, Twitch placed a temporary two-week ban on Trump's account due to "hateful conduct" policy violations, a Twitch spokesperson told Insider in June.
On Wednesday, Twitter removed the same one-minute video that YouTube and Facebook dismissed. Shortly after, the social media platform locked Trump's Twitter account and removed three tweets — including one with the aforementioned video — and replaced the posts with "this Tweet is no longer available" messages. As a result, Trump could either delete the tweets to gain access to his account after 12 hours or remain frozen out of his Twitter account.
On Thursday, Trump deleted the three tweets in question, and the tweets now read: "This Tweet is no longer available because it violated the Twitter Rules." Twitter did not confirm with Insider the time the tweets were deleted, but if the original statement still holds, the 12-hour countdown until Trump has access to his Twitter account has already begun.
However, the social media platform isn't ruling out more serious actions in the future.
"Future violations of the Twitter Rules, including our Civic Integrity or Violent Threats policies, will result in permanent suspension of the @realDonaldTrump account,"Twitter said in a statement.
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