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 happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so 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 such as “I know how you feel.” Twitter and Facebook both eventually remove some of the posts and say the president will be suspended at least until the next day.
Jan. 7, 2021: Facebook bars Mr. Trump through the end 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 will support a peaceful transition of power.
Jan. 8, 2021: Twitter permanently bars Mr. Trump from its service “due to the risk 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 in finding a new way to command attention.
June 4, 2021: Facebook updates its stance on the suspension of Mr. Trump’s account, saying it would last at least two years. Facebook also says it will end a policy of treating posts from politicians differently from those of other users.
June 7, 2021: Times reporters analyze hundreds 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 had to delay its rollout, even as the field of sites 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 company.
May 10, 2022: Elon Musk, who is in the process of buying Twitter, says that he would “reverse the permanent 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 purchase Twitter was “temporarily on hold” until he could get more details to confirm that spam and fake accounts represent less than 5 percent of the social network’s total users.
