A few days before President-elect Joe Biden took office, Facebook announced Friday that it no longer allows the creation of new events near the White House, the U.S. Capitol or any state chapter building until after of the inauguration.
Facebook will also review all events related to the inauguration, remove those that violate site policies, and block events created in the United States by accounts and pages located outside the United States.
“We are monitoring for signs of violence or other threats in Washington, DC and the 50 states,” Facebook said in a statement. “… as we did in the weeks after the presidential election, we promote accurate information about elections and violence in the Capitol rather than content that our systems predict may be less accurate, delegitimize elections, or portray riots as to victims. ”
Facebook also said it continues to pause political advertising and restricts some features for U.S. users “who repeatedly violate policies.” Affected people will not be able to create live videos or create events, groups or pages.
Facebook made the announcement hours after CBS News learned that the Department of Homeland Security said national extremists posed the biggest threat to Joe Biden’s inauguration next week.
DHS issued an intelligence report saying some extremists believe Mr. Biden will not be a legitimate president. DHS also warned that there may be incited violence against federal buildings, law enforcement and public officials.
Social media sites have stepped up content moderation since the Jan. 6 deadly attack on the Capitol. Twitter has done that permanently banned the president and Amazon kicked Parler outside of their web hosting services for not moderating content.
Wednesday, Airbnb announced that all bookings in the Washington DC area next week have been canceled and no new bookings will be allowed in the area during that time. The decision, Airbnb said, is because “several local, state and federal officials asked people not to travel to Washington, DC.” inauguration.