Michael Nigro/Pacific Press:LightRocket/Getty
- Donald Trump, Sidney Powell, and Michael Flynn were among the people whose accounts were banned following the attack on the Capitol.
- These accounts, social media platforms said, violate their rules of engagement and pose a risk to the public.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Almost immediately after the attack on the Capitol building last Wednesday, social media platforms began suspending and permanently disabling accounts they say disseminate violent rhetoric.
The most prominent ban was Twitter’s permanent suspension of President Donald Trump’s account Friday night.
After his account got disabled, top conservatives began sharing their Parler accounts on the platform, encouraging their followers to gravitate there. Parler has become a mainstay in alt-right communication, advertising itself as a platform for unregulated language and “free speech.”
Days after the presidential election, Parler download counts surged, signaling that the platform was at the time seeing an influx of new users.
After Twitter banned Trump, Gab another far-right website that bills itself as a “free speech” platform, reported massive growth. About 10,000 new users signed up every hour on Saturday, according to Gab, signaling the gravitation from mainstream social media accounts to less-popular ones like Gab known for the circulation of alt-right speech.
Alt-right content is still available on mainstream social media accounts like Twitter. But after the Capitol riots, social media platforms have begun removing accounts they suspect will incite violence. Some users whose accounts have been removed have previously spread misinformation related to the 2020 election results and QAnon content.
These accounts, social media platforms said, violate their rules of engagement and pose a risk to the public.
Here are the people who’ve been banned since the Capitol riot attacks:
Win McNamee/Getty Images
Trump has been suspended from accessing multiple social media platforms almost immediately after the Capitol riots.
He was permanently suspended from Twitter on Friday “due to the risk of further incitement of violence,” the company said in a tweet.
Facebook blocked Trump “indefinitely” a day earlier, saying the ban will last at least until President-elect Joe Biden gets sworn into office on January 20.
Snapchat also banned Trump’s account for concerns about his rhetoric.
Reddit banned r/DonaldTrump, a popular subreddit that violated the platforms “rules against inciting violence,” a spokesperson said to Insider.
Sidney Powell
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Twitter on Friday said it suspended the account of Sidney Powell, the lawyer Trump tasked with proving his baseless claims of election fraud.
Powell, in her attempt to alter the results of the 2020 presidential election, has been accused of spreading misinformation about Dominion Voting Systems, an electronic voting supplier.
She was sued for $1.3 billion on claims that she facilitated the spread of misinformation.
Steve Bannon
Getty
YouTube removed Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast Friday night for “violation of YouTube’s Terms of Service.”
Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani had appeared on the podcast hours before the ban. During his appearance, he blamed Democrats for the Capitol riots.
Twitter banned Bannon, a former White House strategist, in November after he posted a tweet calling for the decapitation of Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Michael Flynn
SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images
Former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn was booted off Twitter earlier this week.
Flynn partially used Twitter to urge Trump to use martial law to overturn the results of the presidential election.
He’s also been one of most visible backers of QAnon. In 2019, Flynn was scheduled to speak at a QAnon-organized conference.
Ron Watkins
OAN/YouTube
That same day, Twitter banned the account of Ron Watkins, a crucial QAnon figure who ran the alt-right platform 8kun.
Watkins’ misinformation posts have frequently often been amplified by Trump himself. When his account was active, Trump retweeted posts from Watkins.
Other QAnon accounts were also suspended on Friday, and Twitter has been taking steps to reduce the influence and misinformation that comes out of the group. The same day, for example, Twitter removed thousands of QAnon-affiliated accounts.
Still, there are several other QAnon accounts that continue to thrive on the platform.
Powered by WPeMatico
