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Social Media Fuels Insurrection As Twitter, Facebook Temporarily Lock Trump's Accounts

:gos of US social networking websites Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, displayed on smart-phone screen. (Denis Charlet/AFP via Getty Images)
:gos of US social networking websites Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, displayed on smart-phone screen. (Denis Charlet/AFP via Getty Images)

Twitter and Facebook have blocked Trump’s accounts for 12 hours after the president’s baseless claims of a stolen election stoked insurrectionists to storm the Capitol on Wednesday.

Those insurrectionists also used social media — far-right message boards, like Parler — to organize the violence, as many critics wonder why warning signs were not taken more seriously.

Host Tonya Mosley speaks with Ramesh Srinivasan, professor at the University of California Los Angeles’ Department of Information Studies, about the president’s connection to social media.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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