Facebook has announced that it will be banning videos and photos from protesters at the US Capitol and it will delete calls for more protests that violate the curfew in Washington DC.
Facebook tried to justify the ban on videos and photos from protesters by claiming: “At this point they represent promotion of criminal activity which violates our policies.”
In addition to banning these posts, Facebook will also be automatically disabling comments on posts in Groups that “start to have a high rate of hate speech” and using artificial intelligence (AI) to automatically demote content that “likely” violates Facebook’s policies.
Facebook added that it’s “continuing to monitor the situation and will take additional measures if necessary to keep people safe.”
Facebook’s new restrictions follow Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube censoring President Trump’s statement calling for protesters at the Capitol to peacefully go home and “respect our great people in law and order.”
When Facebook censored Trump’s statement, it claimed that it “contributed to the risk of ongoing violence.”
Twitter has also taken unprecedented action against the President in the wake of these protests at the Capitol by suspending Trump’s account for 12 hours and threatening to delete it.
