Michelle Obama calls on Facebook to permanently ban Trump after Capitol riots

Michelle Obama has called upon Facebook to permanently ban Donald Trump from the platform in the aftermath of the Capitol riots.

Per CNBC News, the former First Lady took to Twitter to highlight the stark difference between how Black Lives Matter protestors were treated compared with the pro-Trump mob that stormed the Capitol building and interrupted congress on Wednesday, January 6.

In a statement addressed to her 19 million social media followers, Obama wrote:

"Now is the time for Silicon Valley companies to stop enabling this monstrous behavior - and go even further than they have by permanently banning this man from their platforms, and putting in place policies to prevent their technology from being used by the nation’s leaders to fuel insurrection."

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced that Trump had been banned "indefinitely" from Facebook in a statement issued on Thursday, January 7.

Per the Washington Post, in a post made on Thursday, the Facebook founder stated:

"The shocking events of the last 24 hours clearly demonstrate that President Donald Trump intends to use his remaining time in office to undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power to his elected successor, Joe Biden.

"His decision to use his platform to condone rather than condemn the actions of his supporters at the Capitol building has rightly disturbed people in the US and around the world.

"We removed these statements yesterday because we judged that their effect - and likely their intent -- would be to provoke further violence.

"Following the certification of the election results by Congress, the priority for the whole country must now be to ensure that the remaining 13 days and the days after inauguration pass peacefully and in accordance with established democratic norms."

Zuckerberg continued:

"Over the last several years, we have allowed President Trump to use our platform consistent with our own rules, at times removing content or labeling his posts when they violate our policies.

"We did this because we believe that the public has a right to the broadest possible access to political speech, even controversial speech.

"But the current context is now fundamentally different, involving use of our platform to incite violent insurrection against a democratically elected government. We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great.

"Therefore, we are extending the block we have placed on his Facebook and Instagram accounts indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete."

Per a report by BBC News, the ban came after Trump posted a video from the White House on Wednesday, January 6, urging protesters to "go home", before adding: "We love you" and insisting: "This was a fraudulent election but we can't play into the hands of these people but we have to have peace."

Instagram (which is owned by Facebook) also blocked Trump's account, and YouTube removed the video.