Michelle Obama calls on Twitter and Facebook to permanently ban Trump

Former First Lady Michelle Obama urged social media companies on Thursday to permanently ban President Trump from using their platforms.

Why it matters: Her call comes after Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat took action against the president's accounts after he repeated false claims of election fraud and defended his supporters who invaded the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.

What they're saying: "The day was a fulfillment of the wishes of an infantile and unpatriotic president who can't handle the truth of his own failures. And the wreckage lays at the feet of a party and media apparatus that gleefully cheered him on, knowing full well the possibility of consequences like these," Obama wrote.

• "Now is the time for Silicon Valley companies to stop enabling this monstrous behavior—and go even further than they have already by permanently banning this man from their platforms and putting in place policies to prevent their technology from being used by the nation's leaders to fuel insurrection."

The big picture: Twitter first removed three posts from the president on Wednesday, then locked his account until he permanently deleted the offending tweets and banned him from posting for 12 hours.

• Facebook banned Trump from posting for at least the next two weeks until after the transition of power to President-elect Joe Biden.
• Snapchat also locked Trump's account on its platform.

Go deeper: Social media platforms muzzle Trump after Capitol melee