Donald Trump blocked by Twitter and Facebook after US Capitol violence

US President Donald Trump has been blocked from social media for "contributing to the risk of ongoing violence".

Twitter and Facebook have suspended the outgoing President's accounts following his messages to his supporters who raided the US Capitol and rallied outside.

Four people died during the night of violence.

But Trump told protesters online "I love you" as he advised them to go home, at the same time of repeating unverified claims about election fraud.

The reason Twitter gave for taking down three of Trump's tweets was for "severe violations of our Civic Integrity policy" and said his account would be permanently blocked if the tweets were not removed, BBC News reports.

It continued: "Future violations of the Twitter Rules… will result in permanent suspension of the @realDonaldTrump account".

  • US Capitol: Four people dead after Trump supporters storm building during riots

Facebook hit Trump with a 24-hour ban from the social network and YouTube also removed his latest video.

Facebook told the BBC: "The violent protests in the Capitol today are a disgrace. We prohibit incitement and calls for violence on our platform. We are actively reviewing and removing any content that breaks these rules.

"We removed it because on balance we believe it contributes to rather than diminishes the risk of ongoing violence."

A mob of Trump supporters broke past security and police to reach the seat of US government, leading to the death of one woman shot dead and three others.

The violence came as Republicans were challenging Democrat Joe Biden's election win in the House and Senate chambers after Trump's false claims of fraudulent voting.

YouTube followed up on its policy to remove fake news by removing the president's video because it "violated policies on spreading election fraud".

Twitter stopped users being able to retweet, like and comment on the same video before removing it completely and suspending the account.

Twitter said: "We have been significantly restricting engagement with Tweets labelled under our Civic Integrity Policy due to the risk of violence".

Facebook added that it is actively looking for and removing content that incited or supported the storming of Capitol Hill.

The march was partly organised online, including on Facebook groups and pages.

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