Facebook blocks Trump for remainder of term while Twitter sets permanent ban

Last Wednesday, America went through surreal times when a large group of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol after the President posted numerous social media posts on Twitter and Facebook inciting action from those supporters.

Facebook has blocked President Donald Trump from posting on its platform for the remainder of his term as President of the United States. Twitter initially set a 12-hour temporary action of blocking Trump from posting on its platform with a warning that the company may permanently disable his account. On Friday, they updated their statement to ban Trump’s account permanently.

The announcements. Here is Twitter’s post about the temporary ban and warning of future action:

They updated their statement Friday to ban Trump permanently.

Facebook initially put a 24-hour ban in for Trump but then later decided to block Trump through his term. Here is the statement from Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook.

Advertisers pausing accounts. Some advertisers are reportedly pausing their advertising campaigns with Facebook and Twitter during these times. Jonathan Kagan, VP of Search, Cogniscient Media|9Rooftops, told us, “We advised our clients that there was so much coverage of the situation, running into a brand safety scenario, or coming off as tone deaf/insensitive to the situation in DC would be inevitable. To avoid possible brand association, we recommend they temporarily cease paid social ads.”

Lisa Barone from Overit said that most brands should pause their campaigns. She wrote on Twitter:

While another digital marketer named Joe Youngblood said they did the opposite and promoted positive non-political content on the networks.

Updates. Here are some of the other platforms that have removed Trump or made changes to their policies around Trump:

• Twitter updated its policy and permanently banned Trump from the platform
• Reddit banned subreddit group “r/DonaldTrump”
• Twitch disabled Trump’s channel
• Shopify took down his two online affiliate stores
• Instagram banned Trump from posting
• Snapchat disabled Trump’s account
• TikTok is removing content related to #stormthecapitol and #patriotparty
• Apple and Google removed the Parler app from the App Stores
• Pinterest has been limiting hashtags related to pro-Trump topics such as #StopTheSteal
• Stripe will no longer process payments from Trump’s campaigns
• YouTube announced on January 12 that it has also suspended Trump’s channel “for a minimum of seven days, which may be extended,” according to a company statement

Why we care. When advertising on these social networks, it is important to ensure your brand does not get tied up in the negative association with current events. We have seen the short-term impact current events can have on brands as they navigate the choppy waters on social media during a national crisis. We spoke with social media managers and brand safety experts across the nation about whether or not to pause your paid and organic social media campaigns in the midst of a hectic political climate:

Read more >> Halting campaigns shouldn’t be your only brand safety precaution

About The Author

Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here.