HONG KONG: Joshua Wong, one of Hong Kong's most prominent democracy activists who is serving a 13-and-a-half-month jail sentence for illegal assembly, is suspected of violating the city's national security law, according to a notice on his Facebook account.
Wong, 24, gave a police statement on Thursday (Jan 7), the post said, without elaborating.
Police arrested 53 people in dawn raids on democracy activists on Wednesday in the biggest crackdown since China last year imposed a security law that opponents say is aimed at quashing dissent in the former British colony.
The arrests were related to an unofficial vote to pick opposition candidates for an election last year, which authorities said was part of a "subversive" plan to "overthrow" the government.
Democratic politicians held an unprecedented, unofficial and non-binding primary in July in which more than 600,000 people voted to pick who should run for a seat in the Legislative Council.
Wong, who won the primary vote, has been repeatedly detained for his role in organising pro-democracy rallies. He was also among 12 opposition candidates disqualified from running in the legislative election, which has since been postponed with the government citing the coronavirus.
Of Wednesday's arrests, authorities cited the opposition's campaign to win a majority in the legislative election with the view to pressure the government to enact democratic reforms by blocking its proposals in the city's assembly.
The arrests have raised alarm that Hong Kong has taken a swift authoritarian turn following the imposition of the new law, which targets what China broadly defines as secession, subversion, terrorism or collusion with foreign forces.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the United States was considering sanctions and other restrictions on those involved in the arrests.
In response, China said the United States will pay a "heavy price" for its wrongdoing.
Critics say the security law crushes wide-ranging freedoms unavailable elsewhere in China which were promised on the territory's return to Chinese rule in 1997 under a "one country, two systems" formula.
Supporters say it has restored order following months of often violent anti-government and anti-China protests in 2019.
Since its imposition, leading activists such as media tycoon Jimmy Lai have been arrested, some democratic lawmakers have been disqualified, activists have fled into exile and protest slogans and songs have been declared illegal.
It was unclear who could run for the opposition in any future polls following the mass arrests. Those arrested on Wednesday have yet to be charged and were expected to leave police stations on Thursday or Friday.
WASHINGTON: Vice President Mike Pence defied President Donald Trump early on Thursday (Jan 7) morning as he affirmed President-elect Joe Biden’s November victory, putting an end to Trump’s futile efforts to subvert American democracy and overturn the results of the election.
In a move that infuriated Trump and left his own political future far less certain, Pence on Wednesday acknowledged that he did not have the power to unilaterally throw out electoral college votes as Trump and some of his attorneys had wrongly insisted.
Pence, as the session came to an end, said the count “shall be deemed a sufficient declaration" of Biden's victory, but offered no words of congratulations to the incoming administration. It capped an extraordinary day of chaos, violence and division after a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol, sending lawmakers into hiding and delaying the proceeding.
Vice President Mike Pence arrives with members of the Senate to officiate as a joint session of the House and Senate convenes at the Capitol in Washington on Wednesday, Jan 6, 2021, to count the Electoral College votes cast in November's election. (Photo: AP/Andrew Harnik)
Under normal circumstances, the vote-tallying procedure would be a mere formality - the final step in the complicated technical process of electing a new administration. But after losing court case after court case and with no further options at hand, Trump and his allies had zeroed in on Jan 6 as their last ditch chance to try to influence the outcome.
They spent days in a futile bid trying to convince Pence that the vice president had the power to reject electors from battleground states that voted for Biden, even though the Constitution makes clear that the vice president’s role in the joint session is largely ceremonial, much like a master of ceremonies.
Pence acknowledged that reality in a lengthy statement on Wednesday laying out his conclusion that a vice president cannot claim “unilateral authority” to reject states' electoral votes.
“It is my considered judgment that my oath to support and defend the Constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not,” Pence wrote in a letter to members of Congress that was released shortly before he gavelled in the joint session of Congress.
Not long after, the angry mob swarmed the Capitol, overwhelmed police and halted the proceeding that had been underway.
Pence's move was an expected outcome, but one that carved a dramatic fissure between Trump and Pence, his once most loyal lieutenant.
In a dramatic split screen, Pence released the statement just after he arrived at the Capitol to tally the votes and as the president was telling thousands of supporters gathered near the White House that Pence could overturn them if he wanted.
“If Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the election,” Trump wrongly told supporters, who later marched through Washington and stormed the Capitol.
He repeatedly returned to Pence throughout his speech, voicing frustration as he tried to pressure the vice president to fall in line.
“Mike Pence is going to have to come through for us. And if he doesn’t, it's a sad day for our country," he said.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence officiate as a joint session of the House and Senate convenes at the Capitol in Washington on Wednesday, Jan 6, 2021, to confirm the Electoral College votes cast in November's election. (Photo: AP/Jim Lo Scalzo, Pool)
Trump, who has spent the last two months refusing to acknowledge his defeat, later tweeted his disapproval.
“Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify," he wrote. “USA demands the truth!”
Pence, too, was fuming.
“I’ve known Mike Pence forever,” Republican Senator Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma told Tulsa World. “I’ve never seen Pence as angry as he was today."
“He said, ‘After all the things I’ve done for (Trump),'” Inhofe added.
Despite claims by Trump and his allies, there was not widespread fraud in the election. This has been confirmed by a range of election officials and by William Barr, who stepped down as Trump's attorney general last month.
Neither Trump nor any of the lawmakers who objected to the count have presented credible evidence that would change the outcome.
While Pence's allies had made clear that he intended to defy Trump and hew to the Constitution, the vice president's move was nonetheless a significant departure for a man who has spent the last four years defending the president at every turn and carefully avoiding his ire.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence talk as a joint session of the House and Senate convenes at the Capitol in Washington on Wednesday, Jan 6, 2021, to count the Electoral College votes cast in November's election. (Photo: AP/Erin Schaff, The New York Times, Pool)
Pence is eyeing his own run for president in 2024, and the episode could damage his prospects, especially if Trump - or supporters who were wrongly convinced Pence had the power to change the outcome - maintain a grudge.
Even out of office, Trump is expected to remain the de facto leader of the Republican Party and a political kingmaker for years to come.
Trump spent much of Wednesday consumed with anger over Pence’s actions, even as violent protesters swarmed the US Capitol, forcing lawmakers into hiding and grinding the proceedings to a halt, according to a White House official who spoke only on condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters.
Pence was ushered out of the Senate chamber to a secure location as protesters breached the building. Pence never left the Capitol, according to his chief spokesman, and was in “regular contact” with House and Senate leadership, Capitol Police and the departments of defence and justice throughout the ordeal.
Vice President Mike Pence walks off the House floor as a joint session of the House and Senate convenes at the Capitol in Washington on Wednesday, Jan 6, 2021, to confirm the Electoral College votes cast in November's election. (Photo: AP/Erin Schaff, The New York Times, Pool)
“The violence and destruction taking place at the US Capitol Must Stop and it Must Stop Now,” Pence later tweeted. “Anyone involved must respect Law Enforcement officers and immediately leave the building.”
After the House and Senate reconvened hours later, Pence reopened the proceedings and returned to the task of opening the certificates of electoral votes from each state and presenting them to the appointed “tellers” from the House and Senate in alphabetical order.
After hours of roll calls and debate, he announced the contests' winners - Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris - formalising his and Trump's defeat.
WASHINGTON (BLOOMBERG, REUTERS) - Mr Joe Biden was formally recognised by Congress as the next US president early on Thursday (Jan 7), ending two months of failed challenges by his predecessor, Mr Donald Trump, that exploded into violence at the US Capitol as lawmakers met to ratify the election result.
The Democratic President-elect’s victory was sealed after House and Senate members fended off a final round of objections to the Nov 3 election outcome raised by a handful of Republicans on Mr Trump’s behalf.
President Trump on Thursday promised an orderly transition.
Statement by President Donald J. Trump on the Electoral Certification:
“Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20th. I have always said we would continue our...
“Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20th,” Mr Trump said in a statement posted on Twitter by White House spokesman Dan Scavino.
Mr Trump had repeated his pledge that he would never concede at a rally earlier Wednesday. He had pressured lawmakers to object to the results in what is normally a routine process, and urged Vice-President Mike Pence to take the extraordinary step of rejecting states outright.
Instead, Mr Pence presided over the counting of electoral votes, which resumed after order was restored to the Capitol and ended early on Thursday.
A group of Republicans had prepared objections, perhaps to half a dozen states, but the movement largely fizzled.
In the Scavino tweets, Mr Trump added, “I have always said we would continue our fight to ensure that only legal votes were counted. While this represents the end of the greatest first term in presidential history, it’s only the beginning of our fight to Make America Great Again!”
The proceedings were disrupted for several hours as pro-Trump demonstrators overran police lines, besieged the House chamber and entered the Senate chamber, sending lawmakers fleeing for safety.
After authorities regained control of the Capitol complex, Congress returned to work on Wednesday evening, holding two rounds of votes that culminated in affirmation of Mr Biden’s win early Thursday.
Vice-President Pence – who had split with Mr Trump by calling for protesters inside the Capitol to be prosecuted – presided over certification of Mr Biden’s 306 Electoral College votes. Earlier on Wednesday, he defied the President by telling lawmakers in a letter that he would make no attempt to unilaterally block the certification from proceeding.
Mr Pence, in declaring the final vote totals behind Mr Biden’s victory, said this “shall be deemed a sufficient declaration of the persons elected president and vice-president of the United States". Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris will take office alongside Mr Biden on Jan 20.
The congressional action, usually a pro forma affair that draws little notice, will be remembered as the coda for one of the most tumultuous presidential campaigns in recent history. It was the final, official step in the drawn-out 2020 election – which is why it drew the attention of the President and thousands of his supporters he implored to come to Washington in protest.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer placed the blame for the violence squarely on Mr Trump, but said that Congress wasn’t deterred.
“These images were projected to the world,” Mr Schumer says. “This will be a stain on our country not so easily washed away.”
He added, “In the end all this mob has really accomplished is to delay our work by a few hours.”
The occupation of the Capitol prompted Republicans to curtail their planned objections, with senators forcing debate on only two states’ electors instead of the six they originally planned.
“The United States Senate will not be intimidated,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said. “We will certify the winner of the 2020 election.”
One unidentified woman died after being shot by Capitol Police when protesters stormed the Capitol shortly after Congress began the certification process, according to the Washington, DC, police department. At least 52 people were arrested and a number of guns were seized.
“I am genuinely shocked and saddened that our nation, so long the beacon of light and hope for democracy, has come to such a dark moment,” Mr Biden said in brief remarks on the incident in Wilmington, Delaware, on Wednesday.
“Today is a reminder – a painful one – that democracy is fragile, and to preserve it requires people of good will, leaders with the courage to stand up who are devoted not to the pursuit of the power or their personal interests, pursuits of their own selfish interests, at any cost, but of the common good,” he added.
Mr Trump has no further means to challenge the election outcome, barring an unlikely decision by the Supreme Court to consider his unsubstantiated claims of widespread fraud before Biden is inaugurated.
Mr Biden inherits a raging pandemic that Mr Trump has all but ignored over the last two months as he waged a legal and political campaign to overturn the election results. The new President’s first test will be to more effectively distribute and deliver coronavirus vaccines, after the Trump administration fell far short of meeting a year-end goal to inoculate 20 million Americans.
The certification came on the same day that Mr Biden learnt that he will have a Senate Democratic majority after twin run-offs in Georgia.
The new President has promised to put forward another economic stimulus Bill soon after taking office that would include billions of dollars in spending for vaccine distribution and to safely reopen schools, with the goal of allowing most to begin in-person instruction within the first 100 days of his presidency.
Supporters of US President Donald Trump in the Capitol Rotunda after breaching Capitol security in Washington on Jan 6, 2021. PHOTO: EPA-EFE
His team is building a full federal response to the pandemic that includes vaccine distribution, personal protective equipment and economic aid.
Born in Scranton, Pennsylvania and raised in Delaware, Mr Biden spent decades pursuing the presidency. He ran for the White House in 1988 and 2008 and considered running in 1984 and 2016.
Elected to the Senate in 1972 at the age of 29, he served 36 years in the chamber. He chaired the Judiciary and Foreign Relations committees before becoming Mr Barack Obama’s vice-president in 2009. He accepted the offer to be Mr Obama’s running mate on the condition that he would be the last person in the room when Mr Obama made key decisions, though he wasn’t always heeded.
He entered the race in April 2019 driven, he said, by a sense of obligation to oust Mr Trump. Mr Biden cited the violent Charlottesville, Virginia, demonstrations by White supremacists in 2017 in which a peaceful counter protester was killed. Mr Trump said after the incident that “there were very fine people on both sides”.
Throughout his candidacy, Mr Biden endured criticism that he was too moderate or too old while focusing his appeals on a reliable base of support – African Americans, women, and a sliver of white voters who had voted for Mr Trump in 2016 but had soured on the President.
His general-election argument against Mr Trump centred on the President’s handling of the pandemic that had killed nearly a quarter of a million people by Election Day and put millions more out of work.
US Capitol Police stand detain protesters outside of the House Chamber during a joint session of Congress in Washington on Jan 6, 2021. PHOTO: AFP Trump supporters clashing with police and security forces as they storm the US Capitol in Washington on Jan 6, 2021. PHOTO: AFP
He survived Mr Trump’s efforts to attack him as corrupt and senile, returning the Rust Belt states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania to the Democratic column and adding Arizona and Georgia, two states that hadn’t supported Democratic presidential candidates in this century.
In all, Mr Biden notched the same Electoral College vote total that Mr Trump had secured four years earlier, 306 to 232.
BEIJING: China drew a comparison on Thursday (Jan 7) between the storming of the US Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump and last year's often-violent protests in Hong Kong, but noted that no one had died when demonstrators took over the legislature of the China-ruled city.
Clips of the chaotic scenes from Washington aired repeatedly on Chinese state television.
Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a daily briefing said that while events in Hong Kong in 2019, when the city's legislature was stormed, were more "severe" than those in Washington, "not one demonstrator died".
Relations between Beijing and Washington are at their worst in decades over a range of disputes, including China's heavy clampdown on Hong Kong, and Chinese diplomats and state media often draw attention to news of violence or chaos in the United States.
Months of anti-government protests in Hong Kong in 2019 included the Jul 1 storming of the city's legislature, in a campaign for democratic reforms that Beijing ultimately quashed with new national security legislation. One man died after falling from a parking lot during one protest in the city.
Police in Washington said four people died and 52 were arrested after Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol on Wednesday in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying President-elect Joe Biden's election victory.
"We also wish that US people can enjoy peace, stability and security as soon as possible," Hua said.
Hua also condemned US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's comments in which he said Washington may sanction those involved in the arrest of over 50 people in Hong Kong and will send the US ambassador to the United Nations to visit Taiwan.
A comment with thousands of favourable votes on China’s Twitter-like Weibo said the Washington protests were “over 90 per cent” the same as those in Hong Kong. European leaders were showing “double standards” in condemning one but not the other, it said.
"The response and words used by some in the US to what happened in Hong Kong in 2019 were completely different to what they used for today's ongoing events in the US," Hua said.
Around the world, leaders expressed shock and concern, condemning the attempted subversion of democracy.
"What happened today in Washington DC is not American, definitely," French President Emmanuel Macron said in a video message on Twitter.
Russia's deputy UN Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy likened the images to protests in Ukraine that toppled Russian-backed President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovich in 2014.
"Some of my friends ask whether someone will distribute crackers to the protesters to echo the Victoria Nuland stunt," he tweeted, citing a 2013 visit to Ukraine when then-US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland offered food to protesters.
WASHINGTON (BLOOMBERG, REUTERS) - Mr Joe Biden was formally recognised by Congress as the next US president early on Thursday (Jan 7), ending two months of failed challenges by his predecessor, Mr Donald Trump, that exploded into violence at the US Capitol as lawmakers met to ratify the election result.
The Democratic President-elect’s victory was sealed after House and Senate members fended off a final round of objections to the Nov 3 election outcome raised by a handful of Republicans on Mr Trump’s behalf.
President Trump on Thursday promised an orderly transition.
Statement by President Donald J. Trump on the Electoral Certification:
“Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20th. I have always said we would continue our...
“Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20th,” Mr Trump said in a statement posted on Twitter by White House spokesman Dan Scavino.
Mr Trump had repeated his pledge that he would never concede at a rally earlier Wednesday. He had pressured lawmakers to object to the results in what is normally a routine process, and urged Vice-President Mike Pence to take the extraordinary step of rejecting states outright.
Instead, Mr Pence presided over the counting of electoral votes, which resumed after order was restored to the Capitol and ended early on Thursday.
A group of Republicans had prepared objections, perhaps to half a dozen states, but the movement largely fizzled.
In the Scavino tweets, Mr Trump added, “I have always said we would continue our fight to ensure that only legal votes were counted. While this represents the end of the greatest first term in presidential history, it’s only the beginning of our fight to Make America Great Again!”
The proceedings were disrupted for several hours as pro-Trump demonstrators overran police lines, besieged the House chamber and entered the Senate chamber, sending lawmakers fleeing for safety.
After authorities regained control of the Capitol complex, Congress returned to work on Wednesday evening, holding two rounds of votes that culminated in affirmation of Mr Biden’s win early Thursday.
Vice-President Pence – who had split with Mr Trump by calling for protesters inside the Capitol to be prosecuted – presided over certification of Mr Biden’s 306 Electoral College votes. Earlier on Wednesday, he defied the President by telling lawmakers in a letter that he would make no attempt to unilaterally block the certification from proceeding.
Mr Pence, in declaring the final vote totals behind Mr Biden’s victory, said this “shall be deemed a sufficient declaration of the persons elected president and vice-president of the United States". Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris will take office alongside Mr Biden on Jan 20.
The congressional action, usually a pro forma affair that draws little notice, will be remembered as the coda for one of the most tumultuous presidential campaigns in recent history. It was the final, official step in the drawn-out 2020 election – which is why it drew the attention of the President and thousands of his supporters he implored to come to Washington in protest.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer placed the blame for the violence squarely on Mr Trump, but said that Congress wasn’t deterred.
“These images were projected to the world,” Mr Schumer says. “This will be a stain on our country not so easily washed away.”
He added, “In the end all this mob has really accomplished is to delay our work by a few hours.”
The occupation of the Capitol prompted Republicans to curtail their planned objections, with senators forcing debate on only two states’ electors instead of the six they originally planned.
“The United States Senate will not be intimidated,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said. “We will certify the winner of the 2020 election.”
One unidentified woman died after being shot by Capitol Police when protesters stormed the Capitol shortly after Congress began the certification process, according to the Washington, DC, police department. At least 52 people were arrested and a number of guns were seized.
“I am genuinely shocked and saddened that our nation, so long the beacon of light and hope for democracy, has come to such a dark moment,” Mr Biden said in brief remarks on the incident in Wilmington, Delaware, on Wednesday.
“Today is a reminder – a painful one – that democracy is fragile, and to preserve it requires people of good will, leaders with the courage to stand up who are devoted not to the pursuit of the power or their personal interests, pursuits of their own selfish interests, at any cost, but of the common good,” he added.
Mr Trump has no further means to challenge the election outcome, barring an unlikely decision by the Supreme Court to consider his unsubstantiated claims of widespread fraud before Biden is inaugurated.
Mr Biden inherits a raging pandemic that Mr Trump has all but ignored over the last two months as he waged a legal and political campaign to overturn the election results. The new President’s first test will be to more effectively distribute and deliver coronavirus vaccines, after the Trump administration fell far short of meeting a year-end goal to inoculate 20 million Americans.
The certification came on the same day that Mr Biden learnt that he will have a Senate Democratic majority after twin run-offs in Georgia.
The new President has promised to put forward another economic stimulus Bill soon after taking office that would include billions of dollars in spending for vaccine distribution and to safely reopen schools, with the goal of allowing most to begin in-person instruction within the first 100 days of his presidency.
His team is building a full federal response to the pandemic that includes vaccine distribution, personal protective equipment and economic aid.
Born in Scranton, Pennsylvania and raised in Delaware, Mr Biden spent decades pursuing the presidency. He ran for the White House in 1988 and 2008 and considered running in 1984 and 2016.
Elected to the Senate in 1972 at the age of 29, he served 36 years in the chamber. He chaired the Judiciary and Foreign Relations committees before becoming Mr Barack Obama’s vice-president in 2009. He accepted the offer to be Mr Obama’s running mate on the condition that he would be the last person in the room when Mr Obama made key decisions, though he wasn’t always heeded.
He entered the race in April 2019 driven, he said, by a sense of obligation to oust Mr Trump. Mr Biden cited the violent Charlottesville, Virginia, demonstrations by White supremacists in 2017 in which a peaceful counter protester was killed. Mr Trump said after the incident that “there were very fine people on both sides”.
Throughout his candidacy, Mr Biden endured criticism that he was too moderate or too old while focusing his appeals on a reliable base of support – African Americans, women, and a sliver of white voters who had voted for Mr Trump in 2016 but had soured on the President.
His general-election argument against Mr Trump centred on the President’s handling of the pandemic that had killed nearly a quarter of a million people by Election Day and put millions more out of work.
Trump supporters clashing with police and security forces as they storm the US Capitol in Washington on Jan 6, 2021. PHOTO: AFP
He survived Mr Trump’s efforts to attack him as corrupt and senile, returning the Rust Belt states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania to the Democratic column and adding Arizona and Georgia, two states that hadn’t supported Democratic presidential candidates in this century.
In all, Mr Biden notched the same Electoral College vote total that Mr Trump had secured four years earlier, 306 to 232.
WASHINGTON, DC: All it took for social-media giants Twitter and Facebook to even temporarily bar President Donald Trump from addressing their vast audiences was a violent insurrection at the US Capitol, fueled by years of false statements, conspiracy theories and violent rhetoric from the president.
On Wednesday (Jan 6) , in an unprecedented step, the two companies temporarily suspended Trump from posting to their platforms after a mob of his supporters stormed the house of Congress.
It was the most aggressive action either company has yet taken against Trump, who more than a decade ago embraced the immediacy and scale of Twitter to rally loyalists, castigate enemies and spread false rumors.
Twitter locked Trump out of his account for 12 hours and said that future violations by Trump could result in a permanent suspension.
The company required the removal of three of Trump's tweets, including a short video in which he urged those supporters to “go home” while also repeating falsehoods about the integrity of the presidential election.
Trump's account deleted those posts, Twitter said. Had they remained, Twitter had threatened to extend his suspension.
Facebook and Instagram, which Facebook owns, followed up in the evening, announcing that Trump wouldn't be able to post for 24 hours following two violations of its policies. The White House did not immediately offer a response to the actions.
While some cheered the platforms' actions, experts noted that the companies' actions follow years of hemming and hawing on Trump and his supporters spreading dangerous misinformation and encouraging violence that have contributed to Wednesday's violence.
Jennifer Grygiel, a Syracuse University communications professor and an expert on social media, said Wednesday’s events in Washington, DC are a direct result of Trump’s use of social media to spread propaganda and disinformation, and that the platforms should bear some responsibility for their inaction.
“This is what happens,” said Grygiel. “We didn’t just see a breach at the Capitol. Social media platforms have been breached by the president repeatedly. This is disinformation. This was a coup attempt in the United States.”
Grygiel said the platform’s decision to remove the video — and Twitter’s suspension — are too little, too late.
“They’re creeping along towards firmer action,” Grygiel said, calling Trump “Exhibit A” for the need for greater regulation of social media.
“Social media is complicit in this because he has repeatedly used social media to incite violence. It’s a culmination of years of propaganda and abuse of media by the president of the United States."
Trump posted that video more than two hours after protesters entered the Capitol, interrupting lawmakers meeting in an extraordinary joint session to confirm the Electoral College results and President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.
So far, YouTube has not taken similar action to muzzle Trump, although it said it also removed Trump's video. But that video remained available as of Wednesday afternoon.
Guy Rosen, Facebook’s vice-president of integrity, said on Twitter Wednesday that the video was removed because it “contributes to rather than diminishes the risk of ongoing violence.”
“This is an emergency situation and we are taking appropriate emergency measures, including removing President Trump’s video,” Rosen said on Twitter.
Twitter initially left the video up but blocked people from being able to retweet it or comment on it. Only later in the day did the platform delete it entirely.
Trump opened his video saying, “I know your pain. I know your hurt. But you have to go home now.”
After repeating false claims about voter fraud affecting the election, Trump went on to say: “We can’t play into the hands of these people. We have to have peace. So go home. We love you. You’re very special.”
Republican lawmakers and previous administration officials had begged Trump to give a statement to his supporters to quell the violence. He posted his video as authorities struggled to take control of a chaotic situation at the Capitol that led to the evacuation of lawmakers and the death of at least one person.
Trump has harnessed social media — especially Twitter — as a potent tool for spreading misinformation about the election. Wednesday's riot only increased calls to ban Trump from the platform.
“The President has promoted sedition and incited violence," Jonathan Greenblatt, chief executive officer of the Anti-Defamation League said in a statement.
“More than anything, what is happening right now at the Capitol is a direct result of the fear and disinformation that has been spewed consistently from the Oval Office."
