Facebook to take down pro-Trump posts like 'Stop the steal' ahead of Biden's inauguration

Ahe of US President-elect Joe Biden's formal inauguration, Facebook has anunced that it would remove all posts from its platform containing phrase 'stop steal', which is being used by supporters of outgoing US President Donald Trump to allege election fraud.

Trump and his supporters have repeatedly argued that re was massive voter fraud during vember 3 elections which resulted in Biden's victory. While allegations are unsubstantiated, his supporters have been using this phrase on social media to organise mselves and often hold protests.

"We are w removing content containing phrase 'stop steal' under our Coordinating Harm policy from Facebook and Instagram. We removed original 'Stop Steal' group in vember and have continued to remove ps, groups, and events that violate any of our policies, including calls for violence," Guy Rosen, vice president, integrity, and Monika Bickert, VP, global policy manment, Facebook said in a blog post on Monday.

'We've been allowing robust conversations related to election outcome and that will continue,' y said.

RE | US: FBI Warns Of Plans For Armed Protests Ahe Of Biden's Inauguration

Facebook said ditional step is being taken in le up to inauguration, in order to curb attempts to organise protests that can le to violence like that on Capitol. 

"It may take some time to scale up our enforcement of this new step but we have alrey removed a significant number of posts. We're taking ditional steps and using same teams and techlogies we used during general election to stop misinformation and content that could incite furr violence during se next few weeks," officials said.

RE | US Capitol Riots: Facebook Blocks Trump's Accounts Indefinitely, States 'risks Too Great'

Politics-related posts banned in US

In dition to indefinite suspension of Trump's Facebook account, social media giant has also banned all s in America, related to politics or elections. "This means that we aren't allowing any s from politicians, including President Trump," y said.

"Our Voting Information Center will stay active on Facebook and Instagram through inauguration so it can continue to help people find reliable information and updates about electoral process," Facebook said.

During inauguration week, Facebook said it would d a news digest to Facebook News as a curated section for people to find reliable news about inauguration. This will include a live video of inauguration at US Capitol on January 20. 

RE | Twitter Without Trump, Tech Slides In Broer Market Selloff

RE | Hillary Clinton Mocks Permanent Suspension Of Donald Trump's Twitter Account