How social media played a role in the Capitol Hill siege

CNBC's Kelly Evans discusses the role of social media in yesterday's siege of Capitol Hill by pro-Trump rioters with CNBC.com tech reporter Steve Kovach and the Wall Street Journal's Joanna Stern. For access to live and exclusive video from CNBC subscribe to CNBC PRO: https://cnb.cx/2NGeIvi Following the takeover of the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob, Twitter and Facebook pulled the plug on President Donald Trump’s accounts, suspending him from posting based on the fear that his messages would incite even more violence than we already saw in the halls of Congress. But Wednesday was hardly the first time Trump had violated policies on social media that would get a normal person banned. Wednesday’s events were an inevitable conclusion thanks to the conspiracy-laden chatter in the darker corners of the internet that social media companies allowed to freely spread. Over the course of Trump’s presidency, Facebook and Twitter rewrote their policies to give the president more runway to say dangerous things under the guise that it was important for the public to know the stream-of-consciousness thoughts from world leaders. These policies were clearly designed around Trump’s online behavior and gave him the freedom to spread messages of hate, conspiracy and violence. At best, those policies simply enabled Trump’s lies and calls for violence. At worst, they let those dangerous messages go viral and be believed by enough people who were willing to break down the doors of the Capitol. For years, tech industry observers speculated what the final straw would be: What would Trump have to say or do in order for tech platforms to limit his messages on social media? Now we know. It wasn’t threats of nuclear war. It wasn’t veiled threats that racial-equality demonstrators last summer would be shot. It wasn’t any of the numerous lies about the results of our last election. It was only after the president’s words resulted directly in a storming of the Capitol building by his angry supporters that the tech platforms took real action and blocked Trump from posting, at least temporarily. Twitter went as far as to say that Trump would be permanently banned if he violated the company’s safety policies again after his suspension. On Thursday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Trump’s suspension, which was originally set for 24 hours, will extend at least through the presidential transition on Jan. 20. It’s worth a brief history lesson on how we got here. It wasn’t until 2020, more than three years into Trump’s presidency, that Facebook and Twitter started labeling his messages with fact-check links and safety warnings. And that was mostly spurred by Trump’s messages on the George Floyd protests and false claims about the legitimacy of mail-in ballots in the months before the November election. Trump was unchecked on social media for the vast majority of his presidency and given free reign to oxygenate the worse impulses of his followers as a result. Now there will be a reckoning. In the weeks to come, we’ll have to look at social media’s role in enabling the darkness we witnessed Wednesday. Facebook and Twitter’s approach that a world leader should get free rein to say whatever they want without consequence ignored the fact that a president’s words have great power and influence over the people who see them. Over the years, Trump’s social media habit fueled anger and resentment among his followers, finally crescendoing into the violence we saw on Capitol Hill. » Subscribe to CNBC TV: https://cnb.cx/SubscribeCNBCtelevision » Subscribe to CNBC: https://cnb.cx/SubscribeCNBC » Subscribe to CNBC Classic: https://cnb.cx/SubscribeCNBCclassic Turn to CNBC TV for the latest stock market news and analysis. From market futures to live price updates CNBC is the leader in business news worldwide. The News with Shepard Smith is CNBC’s daily news podcast providing deep, non-partisan coverage and perspective on the day’s most important stories. Available to listen by 8:30pm ET / 5:30pm PT daily beginning September 30: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/29/the-news-with-shepard-smith-podcast.html?__source=youtube%7Cshepsmith%7Cpodcast Connect with CNBC News Online Get the latest news: http://www.cnbc.com/ Follow CNBC on LinkedIn: https://cnb.cx/LinkedInCNBC Follow CNBC News on Facebook: https://cnb.cx/LikeCNBC Follow CNBC News on Twitter: https://cnb.cx/FollowCNBC Follow CNBC News on Instagram: https://cnb.cx/InstagramCNBC https://www.cnbc.com/select/best-credit-cards/ #CNBC #CNBCTV

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