FACEBOOK BANS * TRUMP : INDEFINITELY

President Trump's favorite megaphone, Twitter, blocks the president's account for 12 hours.

Facebook banned President Donald Trump from the platform ''indefinitely due to his efforts to violence at the US capital, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said on Thursday.

Zuckerberg said the 24-hour ban announced on Wednesday on Trump's accounts including on Instagram was extended because of Trump's ''use of our platform to incite violent insurrection against a democratically elected government.''

The Facebook CEO added : ''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.''

The announcement came the day after the outgoing US leader was locked out of all major social media platforms due to his false claims about the legitimacy of his loss''to Biden, and for inciting the angry mob that stormed the US Capitol.

''We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during the period are simply too great,'' Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook page.

''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.''

Trump's favorite megaphone, Twitter, blocked him for 12 hours, but it was unclear on Thursday if the ban had been lifted.

Snapchat confirmed on Thursday that it locked Trump out of the photo sharing platform amid concerns over his dangerous rhetoric.

Twitter said Trump's messages were violations of the platform's rules on civic integrity and that any future violations ''will result in permanent suspension of the @realDonaldTrumopaccount''.

The messaging platform said Trump['s account would be locked for 12 hours and that iof the offending tweets were not removed, ''the accounts will remain locked.''

Critics of the online platform argued they moved too slowly as Wednesday's violence was organised on social media, directing their ire at Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.

''You've got blood on your hands, #jack and Zuck,''tweeted,'' Chris Sacca, an early Facebook investor who has become one of its harshest critics. [AFP]