Social media companies’ ban on Donald Trump poised to continue after end of presidency

Big Tech’s ban of former President Donald Trump persisted Wednesday even as his term ended.

Facebook, Twitter and Google-owned YouTube exiled Mr. Trump from their services, and the tech giants have no intention of reversing the banishments anytime soon.

YouTube said ahead of Wednesday’s inauguration of President Biden that it extended the seven-day ban it enacted last week against Mr. Trump for at least another seven days.

“In light of concerns about the ongoing potential for violence, the Donald J. Trump channel will be prevented from uploading new videos or livestreams for an additional minimum of seven days,” said Ivy Choi, a YouTube spokeswoman, wrote in an email. “As we shared previously, comments will continue to be indefinitely disabled under videos from the channel.”

In addition to its block on Mr. Trump, YouTube removed some of his content, including a video message posted during the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. The video features Mr. Trump telling his supporters to “go home” and he called them “very special.”

He also repeated his false claim that Democrats “stole” the Nov. 3 election, which coincided with the pro-Trump mob attacking Congress during the count of Electoral College votes that showed Mr. Biden had won the White House.

Facebook and Twitter also took down that video message.

Facebook slowly escalated its crackdown on Mr. Trump. First, it prevented Mr. Trump from posting for 24 hours across its platforms, which include Facebook and Instagram.

Then, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg ramped up the ban and said it would maintain the action at least “until the peaceful transition of power is complete.”

Following the inauguration, Facebook indicated the ban would continue in perpetuity.

A Facebook spokesperson tweeted that the company had “no plans” to lift the ban on Mr. Trump.

Some of Mr. Trump’s liberal opponents do not think YouTube and Facebook have done enough. “Star Wars” icon Mark Hamill and “Borat” comic actor Sacha Baron Cohen urged their followers to demand the social media companies permanently ban Mr. Trump.

“Think Trump is leaving tomorrow? Think again. Facebook and YouTube STILL show THOUSANDS of Trump posts & videos with his election lies and calls to ’fight!’”” tweeted Mr. Cohen on the eve of Inauguration Day. “RT & tell @Facebook @YouTube: On January 20th, remove Trump from your platforms, PERMANENTLY! #BanTrumpSaveDemocracy.”

Mr. Hamill responded to Mr. Cohen and said Mr. Trump would continue to spread falsehoods after leaving office and must be stopped.

“His #BigLie that the election was stolen caused the violent insurrection in the Capitol & his followers to reject @PresElectBiden,” Mr. Hamill tweeted. “Time for @YouTube & @Facebook to remove his poisonous lies PERMANENTLY NOW.”

Twitter already permanently suspended Mr. Trump’s account, @realDonaldTrump, and prevented him from publishing on Twitter via government accounts such as @POTUS, which is reserved for the president.

On Wednesday, Twitter officially turned the @POTUS account over to Mr. Biden and allowed him to post. Upon handing the government accounts over to the Biden administration, some Twitter users received push notifications from Twitter informing them of the moves: “There’s a new @WhiteHouse. Follow for the latest from the new @WhiteHouse.”