Social media cracks down on Capitol debacle

KATIE PAUL, ELIZABETH CULLIFORD AND JOSEPH MENN

BY THE time social media companies took action against users and groups spurring on the siege of Capitol Hill this week, culminating in the suspension of US President Donald Trump’s accounts, it was too little too late.

For weeks, content on big tech platforms Facebook, Twitter and Alphabet’s YouTube, as well as upstart fringe social networks foretold the storming of the US Capitol on Wednesday that led to five deaths.

In one Facebook post identified by online advocacy