Facebook and Instagram are eliminating all posts that include the phrase 'stop the steal'

"It may take some time to scale up our enforcement of this new step but we have already removed a significant number of posts," Facebook said.
Sign at Facebook headquarters in California in 2017

Facebook announced on Monday that it is purging both Instagram and Facebook, two major social media platforms, of all content that includes the phrase "stop the steal."

"We are now removing content containing the phrase 'stop the steal' under our Coordinating Harm policy from Facebook and Instagram," Facebook said. "We removed the original Stop the Steal group in November and have continued to remove Pages, groups and events that violate any of our policies, including calls for violence."

"We’ve been allowing robust conversations related to the election outcome and that will continue," the social media giant noted. "But with continued attempts to organize events against the outcome of the US presidential election that can lead to violence, and use of the term by those involved in Wednesday's violence in DC, we're taking this additional step in the lead up to the inauguration. It may take some time to scale up our enforcement of this new step but we have already removed a significant number of posts."

The announcement comes after last week's announcement that President Trump's Instagram and Facebook accounts would be blocked "indefinitely," and at a minimum until Joe Biden's inauguration.

"We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great," Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a post. "Therefore, we are extending the block we have placed on his Facebook and Instagram accounts indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete."

Twitter last week "permanently suspended" President Trump's account on its platform.