Facebook Says It Is Removing All Content Mentioning 'Stop the Steal' -- Update

By Sarah E. Needleman 

Facebook Inc. said it is removing all content mentioning "stop the steal, " a phrase popular among supporters of President Trump's unproven claims of election fraud, as part of a raft of measures to stem misinformation and incitements to violence on its platform ahead of President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration.

The social-media giant said Monday that it would uphold its decision last week to suspend Mr. Trump from posting for at least two weeks, with Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg saying at the time that the risks of the president using Facebook during this period were too great. The company also said Monday that it would continue to pause all U.S. ads about politics or elections, including those from Mr. Trump.

"With continued attempts to organize events against the outcome of the U.S. presidential election that can lead to violence, and use of the ['stop the steal'] term by those involved in Wednesday's violence in DC, we're taking this additional step in the lead up to the inauguration," Facebook said in a blog post. "It may take some time to scale up our enforcement of this new step but we have already removed a significant number of posts."

Facebook is among several prominent tech companies -- including Twitter Inc., Snap Inc., Reddit Inc. and others -- that have taken steps in recent days to silence the president's personal accounts or online communities devoted to him, citing rules prohibiting content that incites violence. The moves followed the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol Wednesday by a mob of Trump supporters, who stormed the building after the president and his allies urged them to march on it as lawmakers convened inside to certify Mr. Biden's Electoral College victory.

In addition, Amazon.com Inc., Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google each halted support for the social-media service Parler, which had been soaring in popularity among conservatives and other right-wing users and is known for its loose rules for posting content.

Write to Sarah E. Needleman at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 11, 2021 18:16 ET (23:16 GMT)

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