Facebook cracks down on Trump’s ‘Stop the Steal’ slogan

Social media giant took action after violence at US Capitol by president’s supporters

Facebook says it is cracking down on Donald Trump’s ‘Stop the Steal’ slogan to prevent any more violence before Joe Biden becomes president.

The social media giant announced that it was removing any content that included the controversial phrase, used often by the outgoing president since his election defeat.

It has become a rallying call for Mr Trump and his supporters as he refused to concede to Mr Biden and falsely claimed he had won a “landslide” victory.

The rioters who violently stormed the US Capitol last week to prevent certification of Mr Biden’s win had called 6 January the day they would “save America” and “stop the steal.”

"We are now removing content containing the phrase ‘stop the steal’ under our Coordinating Harm policy from Facebook and Instagram," said the company in a blog post.

Facebook says it views the next two weeks as “a major civic event” and was taking additional steps to prevent the spread of misinformation.

“We’ve been allowing robust conversations related to the election outcome and that will continue," they added.

“But with continued attempts to organise events against the outcome of the US presidential election that can lead to violence, and use of the term by those involved in Wednesday’s violence in DC, we’re taking this additional step in the lead up to the inauguration.”

Facebook says they have already removed “a significant number” of posts and will continue to do so.

The company’s stock price fell by as much as 4.5 per cent on Monday after it banned Mr Trump from its platforms last week.