Event ban

On 20 January, events planned outside the White House and Capitol buildings cannot be organised on the social networking site. The company could also temporarily ban Americans from broadcasting and creating groups.

Facebook has imposed additional restrictions on US users ahead of President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration, according to the company's blog.

Biden is due to take office on 20 January. On that day, the social network will block the creation of any new events near the White House and Capitol in Washington, as well as near capitol buildings in US states. The company will also continue to block the creation of events in the US from non-US accounts.

Facebook warned that if the rules are violated again, the social network may restrict certain functions for United States residents, such as video streaming, creating events, groups or pages.

The company recalled that it began taking action against content posted on the social network before the inauguration last year. For example, in November, administrators blocked a group of supporters of incumbent President Donald Trump called Stop The Steal. Its members had been organizing protests against what they saw as fraudulent vote counts.

The social network also said it would remove content that threatens public safety and disable the accounts of users who posted it. A ban on political advertising on Facebook remains in effect.

A day before the FBI head Christopher Asher Wray said that the agency in the run-up to Biden's inauguration recorded a significant number of security threats on the Internet, including calls for armed protests. He said law enforcement officials had detained about 100 and identified about 200 other protesters outside the Capitol building on January 6.

According to House member Conor Lamb several thousand Trump supporters plan to storm the Capitol on January 20 to prevent Biden from taking office. The congressmen were warned accordingly by law enforcement authorities. Against this background, Politico newspaper reported that the President-elect's inauguration rehearsal, scheduled for January 17, was postponed for security reasons.