UPDATE: Twitter Makes Inflammatory Trump Tweets 'Unavailable,' Temporarily Locks Account

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- After making several of President Donald Trump's inflammatory tweets "unavailable" after his supporters overran Capitol Hill Wednesday, local social media giant Twitter temporarily locked the president's account.

The social media platform's @TwitterSafety account posted about the action just after 4 p.m. Wednesday.

The post stated that the platform "required the removal of three @realDonaldTrump Tweets" that violated Twitter's "Civic Integrity" policy.

Subsequent posts on the thread said that the president's account would be suspended for 12 hours once the tweets were removed by the user and that the account would stay locked if the posts were not removed.

"This means that the account of @realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours following the removal of these Tweets," the post read. "If the Tweets are not removed, the account will remain locked."

Twitter also stated that further policy violations "will result in permanent suspension of the @realDonaldTrump account.:

The social media platform had earlier flagged the president's video message to his rioting supporters in the nation's capitol to go home Wednesday, citing its disputed claims of election fraud and the possibility it might incite violence.

President Trump did not appear on live television to call on his supporters to cease their actions Wednesday, instead tweeting out a pre-recorded video message. The clip was posted response after growing pressure from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers to take more decisive action that would help quell the violent actions of his supporters.

In the video, Trump continued to promote his unsubstantiated claims of mass voter fraud and said loyalists who had swarmed the seat of American democracy were "very special."
"I know your pain. I know your hurt. But you have to go home now," he said. "We can't play into the hands of these people. We have to have peace. So go home. We love you. You're very special."

San Francisco-based Twitter flagged the post as it has been flagging tweets by the president and others making unfounded claims of voter fraud since before the November election. It additionally disabled user capability to reply, like or retweet the video message "due to a risk of violence."

Despite the platform saying that the video could not be retweeted, tens of thousands of users -- both supporters and detractors of President Trump -- were still able to share it on Twitter. The video had been viewed 11.8 million times as of early Wednesday afternoon.

Twitter later made the video unavailable on the platform. At least two subsequent tweets by the president, one making a claim of "a sacred landslide victory" were also made unavailable.

Facebook and YouTube also took down the video in which President Trump addressed his supporters.

Facebook also suspended his account, saying the company "assessed two policy violations against President Trump's Page" and that he will not be able to post on the platform for 24 hours. Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, said it is doing the same.

The president had earlier called on the protesters to remain non-violent, but did not instruct them to disperse.

The video statement came more than an hour after protesters stormed the Capitol as lawmakers convened for a joint session to confirm the Electoral College results and affirm President-elect Joe Biden's victory.

© Copyright 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

In:
• Riot
• Protest
• Twitter
• Washington D.C.