Mayhem in Washington sparks widespread condemnation
January 7, 2021
Stunning scenes from Washington of mobs breaching the Capitol—along with President Trump's own reaction to the events—sparked condemnation and anger across the business and tech world. Among the more notable developments and comments:
- Facebook and YouTube, citing rules about inciting violence, removed Trump's mixed-message video statement in which he simultaneously urged protesters to go home and praised them as "special."
- Twitter locked Trump's account for 12 hours because of what it called "repeated and severe violations" and also took down three of his tweets.
- Guy Rosen, Facebook's vice president of integrity, wrote in a tweet: "This is an emergency situation and we are taking appropriate emergency measures, including removing President Trump's video. We removed it because on balance we believe it contributes to rather than diminishes the risk of ongoing violence."
- Venture capitalist Hunter Walk of Homebrew railed against Trump and Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, calling on colleagues in the tech ecosystem to shun Kushner. "Don't be putting Jared Kushner on cap tables when this is all said and done," Walk tweeted.
- Mark Suster, managing partner of Upfront Ventures, chimed in on Twitter: "If you normalize his behavior of past four years it's on you. I for one will not do business with anything he's involved with. He's an enabler of somebody willing to end democracy in America. Never forget that."
- Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff: "Our leaders must call for peace and unity now. There is no room for violence in our democracy."
- National Association of Manufacturers president and CEO Jay Timmons called the mob attacks an act of "sedition and should be treated as such," according to a statement. "Vice President Pence, who was evacuated from the Capitol, should seriously consider working with the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment to preserve democracy."
- BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said in a statement that he condemned "in the strongest possible terms" the violence at the Capitol. "This is an assault on our nation, our democracy, and the will of the American people."