After the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by supporters of President Donald J. Trump, social media sites including Twitter and Facebook were urged to limit hate speech and the glorification of violence on their platforms.
Jan. 6, 2021: “These are the things and events that occur when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who’ve been badly & unfairly treated for thus long,” Mr. Trump tweets, with an accompanying post to Facebook. Other posts include a video telling his supporters to “go home now,” while also offering encouragement akin to “I know the way you’re feeling.” Twitter and Facebook each eventually remove among the posts and say the president will probably be suspended no less than until the subsequent day.
Jan. 7, 2021: Facebook bars Mr. Trump through the tip of his term, or until Jan. 20. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, says the risks of Mr. Trump using the service were too great. Mr. Trump posts a video to Twitter saying he’ll support a peaceful transition of power.
Jan. 8, 2021: Twitter permanently bars Mr. Trump from its service “because of the chance of further incitement of violence,” effectively cutting him off from his favorite megaphone.
Jan. 10, 2021: Stripped of a platform, Mr. Trump faces a challenge find a latest method to command attention.
June 4, 2021: Facebook updates its stance on the suspension of Mr. Trump’s account, saying it could last no less than two years. Facebook also says it is going to end a policy of treating posts from politicians in another way from those of other users.
June 7, 2021: Times reporters analyze a whole bunch of online communications and posts and find that Mr. Trump’s most ardent supporters continued to spread his message after the ban — doing the work that he had been unable to do himself.
Feb. 18, 2022: Truth Social, Mr. Trump’s alternative to Twitter, has needed to delay its rollout, at the same time as the sector of websites pitching themselves as freer platforms becomes more crowded.
April 27, 2022: Truth Social is inundated with phony accounts and features that don’t work, our tech reviewer writes.
May 6, 2022: A federal judge in San Francisco, saying he was not convinced that Twitter had infringed on Mr. Trump’s free speech rights, dismisses Mr. Trump’s lawsuit against the corporate.
May 10, 2022: Elon Musk, who’s within the strategy of buying Twitter, says that he would “reverse the everlasting ban” of Mr. Trump and let him back on the social network if the deal goes through.
May 13, 2022: Elon Musk said in a tweet that his $44 billion bid to buy Twitter was “temporarily on hold” until he could get more details to substantiate that spam and faux accounts represent lower than 5 percent of the social network’s total users.
