BENEFITS BOOST

Rishi Sunak is considering giving six million people a one-off £500 benefit payment as part of plans to fight off a rebellion over Universal Credit.

The lump-sum would be an alternative to continuing increased payments for Universal Credit claimants, which have provisionally been raised by £20 a week.

The enhanced payments were introduced for 12 months to support struggling families during the coronavirus pandemic and are scheduled to end in April 2021.

It applies to all new and existing Universal Credit claimants and amounts to an additional £1,040 over the year, but amid requests from Labour to extend the uplift, the Chancellor met Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Work and Pensions Secretary Thérèse Coffey to discuss alternatives to the £20 weekly increase.

It comes as the furlough scheme is due to expire in March, which experts fear could see a notable increase in unemployment.

However, it’s unclear how quickly the £500 payment could be dished out, or if it would be open to all Universal Credit claimants.

Resolution Foundation think tank chief executive Torsten Bell said that there are two challenges with this sort of approach, and he said that it doesn’t deal with the long term challenge, that their basic rates of benefits don’t afford enough protection when people have a hard time because they’re too low.

He said the second challenge, which relates specifically to protecting families, is that if they do it in a lump sum for people who are currently on Universal Credit, many people who become unemployed later in the year will not benefit, and it wouldn’t target those who need it.

He continued that the minimum the Government should do is extend the uplift for another year but the truth is that we need a permanently higher basic level of protection.

Rishi Sunak said he will hold off on announcing the decision on whether to increase the benefits uplift until the Budget on March 3.

It’s estimated about 50 Tory MPs representing seats in the North and Midlands have called on the Chancellor to extend the Universal Credit increase and business rate rebates for the duration of the third national lockdown.

Earlier this week, Boris Johnson stoked speculation that the Government will end the £20 uplift, telling MPs that the focus will be on generating jobs over welfare.

The Prime Minister told the Liason committee that what they want to see is jobs and that they want to see people in employment and to see the economy bouncing back and he said that most people in the country would rather concentrate on jobs and growth in wages than centring on welfare but that they had to keep all those things under review.

Everyone should be getting more help at this time, not just the workers.

Some people are going crazy at home with no money and no work, with some having to go to food banks, but then you have people working on the frontline doing a hell of a lot, getting precious little money, and some people are left with nothing.

Some people are hard workers but the pandemic has almost destroyed them and some would never have imagined that they would end up on benefits, but this is the situation they’ve been put in.

So, people should not be judged, particularly those who’ve fallen on bad times through no fault of their own and are now on benefits, because some have children to support and are now in debt and on the verge of losing their family homes and businesses.

Bruce Springsteen And John Legend To Perform On A TV Special To Celebrate The Inauguration Of President-Elect Joe Biden

Bruce Springsteen and John Legend are the latest headliners set to perform on a TV special, Celebrating America, to celebrate the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden on January 20.

The New York Times reports that the Dancing In The Dark singer, 71, and All Of Me hitmaker, 42, will join Foo Fighters during the prime time special.

Desperate Housewives actress Eva Longoria and Little Fires Everywhere star Kerry Washington will also be included in the 90-minute show hosted by Tom Hanks.

Other stars included in the line up are Demi Lovato, Jon Bon Jovi and Justin Timberlake.

Elsewhere, Fall Out Boy is stated to play on We The People, a pre-inauguration performance as his parents met working for the future president.

After Joe Biden beat Donald Trump in November, Wentz posted a throwback shot of himself as a child being held by Joe Biden next to his mother, Dale Lewis Wentz.

He said that his parents met when working for Joe Biden in the Senate in the 70s and that to him, he was the beacon of understanding, empathy and kindness.

It comes after it was announced that Lady Gaga and Jennifer Lopez will perform at the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden on January 20.

Variety reports The Bad Romance hitmaker, 34, will perform the national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner, for the swearing-in ceremony of Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, which will be held on the West Front of the US Capitol building.

On The Floor singer Jennifer Lopez, 51, is also on board to perform before the TV special airs which also features Demi Lovato and Justin Timberlake.

Oscar-winner Lady Gaga is a long time supporter of Joe Biden and has been vocal throughout this election season, joining the future president on the campaign trail.

She also filmed a controversial campaign video for Joe Biden back in November which showed her waving a can of beer and rocking a camouflage get up as she preached to the election’s vital swing states.

Also joining Lady Gaga and Jennifer Lopez at the ceremony will be firefighter Andrea Hall who will lead in the Pledge of Allegiance and first-ever National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman who will read a poem.

The invocation will be delivered by Father Leo O’Donovan and the benediction by Reverend Dr Silvester Beaman, both of whom are longtime friends of the Biden family.

But it seems that this is all turning into a concert more an inauguration and I’m assuming all these stars will play for free and if not, then all the money will be fed back to the people of the redistribution of wealth programme, and if this carries on the way that it seems to be there will be more performers than supporters.

And the question here is, what difference, in reality, do the American people think Joe Biden will make to the country? As Hollywood cheers and the working class cry because these stars wouldn’t spit on the little people if they were on fire.

But people will watch it on TV, some because of the importance of what is a truly historical event, others because of the music, although I honestly don’t see any relevance of these performances and it just seems to lack gravity, but then I guess after the four years that the American people have had with Donald Trump, they need some song to soothe their hearts.

However, when all said and done, this is just going to be another freak show, no matter how many celebrities perform there, and every man and his dog will want to be there.

Donald Trump Intends To Live At Mar-a-Lago And Employ Current Aides After Presidency

Donald Trump reportedly plans to move to his Mar-a-Lago retreat in Florida on the morning of Joe Biden’s inauguration, where he’s expected to employ a few of his loyal White House aides who would either work for him or his son in law, Jared Kushner.

A report published by Bloomberg, quoting sources familiar to the president, says that Donald Trump plans to live in his Florida retreat after his presidency where Jared Kushner will spend a substantial part of his time working with him.

However, some of his prospective neighbours are attempting to prevent him from taking up permanent residency.

The state department confirmed that president-elect Joe Biden and his wife, Dr Jill Biden, have accepted the offer to stay at the Blair House on the eve of his inauguration.

The historic house is the official residence for guests of the president and it’s located near the White House.

However, with Donald Trump’s unwillingness to abide by the custom of attending the new president’s inauguration, it was uncertain whether he would meet Joe Biden or not, as there hadn’t been any official confirmation on where the president would move to after his term expires.

The president is preparing to fly to Mar-a-Lago on the morning of the inauguration but has kept the information hidden from his staff, according to Bloomberg which quoted two sources who have asked not to be named.

Bloomberg wrote that people who are likely to work for him after he leaves the White House are Nick Luna, the director of Oval Office Operations and Donald Trump’s body man, Molly Michael, a deputy assistant to Donald Trump, and Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. Nick Luna’s wife, Cassidy Luna, a deputy assistant to the president, may work for Kushner.

However, Donald Trump, who officially declared Florida as his residence in 2019, may encounter opposition from neighbours who have already stated they don’t want him there.

According to an earlier report by the Washington Post, some of Donald Trump’s neighbours presented a demand letter to the town authorities of Palm Beach, addressed to the US Secret Service, which said that the president lost his legal right to permanently live at Mar-a-Lago due to an agreement he signed in 1993 when he turned his private home to a private club.

And people will now be questioning if Donald Trump will leave the country to evade prosecution as there are numerous indictments under seal awaiting Donald Trump becoming a private citizen.

Perhaps political asylum, mind you, he’d have to find a country that would let him in first because the backlash on them would be horrific – I suppose the antarctic might consider him on the belief that white is right.

But of course, he’s lit a match, tossed it on a pile of explosive debris he’s been spewing for the last 4 years, with more intensity since he lost the election – now he’s fleeing town, how very presidential of him.

I thought he was leaving the country, never to be seen again – that would be a dream come true, but then perhaps he’s realised that no other country would have him because he’s shunned throughout the world, and with all his criminality he probably wouldn’t even get a residency visa.

And Vladimir Putin got all he wanted from Donald Trump, he’s far more supremely intelligent than Donald Trump and he probably wouldn’t be able to put up with Donald Trump’s moronic brain for long.

UK Abuse Victims Are Given ‘Ani’ Code Word

People in danger of domestic abuse during the coronavirus lockdown will be able to ask for help discreetly by giving a code word to pharmacists, under a UK wide scheme launched by ministers.

If someone asks for “Ani” at one of the participating pharmacies, they will be allowed to go to a private space to talk, to see if they require help from police or other services such as domestic abuse helplines. The name is an acronym for “action needed immediately”.

Abuse charities have expressed significant concern about the impact of domestic abuse during the lockdown when women, children and others are denied regular contact with others.

Pharmacies have been appointed as the outlet for the plan because they have personnel qualified to assist people and are also classified as essential retail, meaning they remain open.

The scheme will be available immediately, initially in 2,300 Boots stores and 255 independent pharmacies, and other pharmacies are being invited to sign up to the programme.

Throughout the earlier lockdown in England in November, the charity Refuge, which runs the National Domestic Abuse helpline, said it was extremely concerned by the continuing upward trend in demand for its services.

After the first lockdown, the Counting Dead Women project informed MPs that between 23 March and 12 April at least 16 domestic abuse killings had taken place, far higher than the average for the time of year.

The pharmacy-based initiative was first suggested during a hidden harms web summit hosted by Boris Johnson in June, which explored some of the repercussions of lockdown.

In a Commons statement, Victoria Atkins, the safeguarding minister, said the scheme would offer a necessary lifeline to all victims, ensuring they get help safely and discreetly.

But Jess Phillips, a shadow home office minister who speaks on domestic violence and safeguarding, called for more backing for support services.

She said that domestic abuse and community support services are currently preparing for redundancies in March, which was truly staggering in the middle of a global pandemic and a national lockdown.

She continued that the sector, the Labour party, the domestic abuse and the victim’s commissioner have all called repeatedly for sustainable funding for at least the next year and that the workers being made redundant are the very people the minister needs for ‘Ask for Ani’ to have any prospect of success.

But why just pharmacists? Why not the police as well? They should be helping with domestic abuse as well.

It’s not just women that are victims of abuse or violence, and this information must be available to everyone who needs it.

However, those women of abusive partners or children of abusive parents, those partners or abusers now won’t let their victims out of their sight because they know that when they go to the pharmacy to get a bottle of cough medicine or a packet of paracetomol, they might be going there for a cry for help.

And I’m not here to stick it to anyone but if the victim can see this, so can the abuser, so it wasn’t as discreet as it was designed to be, and it appears that someone didn’t think this through very well.

Any woman or child should be able to go somewhere where they can say in private that they need help without the aid of code word.

How about working on ways to further upskill professionals to recognise the signs of Domestic Violence. How about better support for women, men and children who are being abused?

Because it seems at the moment the only thing they’ve been able to publicly distribute is the code word, not the actual support needed.

Homeless People Have Been Given COVID Vaccines By The Council

Homeless people are being vaccinated against COVID 19 as part of a pioneering scheme after a council insisted rough sleepers and those living in shelters should be prioritised.

Under the Department of Health’s mass vaccination program, the over 80s, care home residents and health and social care workers are first in line to get the jab, but Oldham Council and local GPs insisted homeless people should be protected among the first group of people receiving the vaccine because they, along with the elderly, are most at risk from the virus.

Around 30 people in the region have so far been vaccinated after a clinic was set up at Depaul homeless shelter in Oldham, with more planned to receive the jab.

Dr Zahid Chauhan, who’s also an Oldham councillor responsible for health and social care, said homeless people were extremely vulnerable and that their life expectancy was between just 43 and 45 years old.

He said he was delighted with the scheme, as he issued a personal plea to the Government to please prioritise the homeless as it’s the right and human thing to do, and Dr Zahid Chauhan continued that it was setting an example for the remainder of the country, the rest of the world and said, please don’t ignore these people.

He continued that we can protect them, but that if they get COVID they become sick and if they become sick, they will end up in hospitals and then hospital beds will be taken, along with ICU beds.

And he said that made perfect sense from all directions to vaccinate these people and that he was asking the Government to please consider again and it was his appeal to them as these people are extremely vulnerable.

Homeless couple Kelly Heney, 38, and Lee Ullha,46, live at a homeless shelter and they were vaccinated with the Oxford AstraZeneca jab.

Lee Ullha said that they got evicted when this COVID thing kicked in, that’s why they were living in the park so they didn’t watch TV, so they didn’t know much about it.

He said that it was scary, especially with the new strain of COVID and he didn’t think that people take it as seriously as it is.

He continued that you see people strolling around without their masks and they’re saying it’s not real and that it’s all make-believe, and he said that it’s important that people have the vaccine and that it’s for their safety.

Ms Heney added that for her, she couldn’t believe it’s just happened and that she was thrilled and so pleased that they’d had the COVID injection because it was a huge thing.

The vaccinations came as the United Kingdom recorded another 1,654 deaths, the highest daily toll since the pandemic started, while more than 100,000 deaths have been linked to COVID 19.

These poor people need all the help they can get because most of us have a nice warm home to be in and we should be happy for them to go before us, at least we’re in the comfort of a nice warm home, and what a disgrace it is that these people are on the streets in the first place when they need all the help they can get, but then we should be asking Oldham Council why they’re homeless in the first place.

The homeless and rough sleepers quite often lead a somewhat turbulent lifestyle and would find it nigh on impossible to adhere to rules such as mask-wearing or social distancing.

And due to the transient nature of their lifestyle they can come into contact with many other people, so it makes sense to vaccinate them.

Many also have chronic illnesses and have to share space in shelters et cetera, so are extremely exposed to catching and suffering considerably with COVID 19, so it makes sense to vaccinate.

Millions of WhatsApp Users Ditch The App And Shift To Competitors Telegram Or Signal Ahead Of The Privacy Policy Update

Millions of Whatsapp users have taken the extreme measure of abandoning the app ahead of a privacy policy update that will force them to share their data with Facebook.

The update, which will be released on February 8, affects WhatsApp users in all countries outside of Europe and the UK, where there are strict data protection laws.

Users in these areas will be expected to give their permission for Facebook to access their data, including their phone numbers and information about how they communicate with others to continue using the app.

The requirement will apply regardless of whether or not the WhatsApp user has a Facebook account.

The news has led countless people to jump ship to competing apps, according to data from Sensor Tower.

When the privacy policy changes were announced on January 7, Telegram picked up approximately 1.7 million downloads and Signal gained 1.2 million downloads, while WhatsApp, which normally dominates, gained just 1.3 million downloads.

WhatsApp installations also fell about 13 per cent to 10.3 million downloads in the first seven days of January, compared to the seven days prior.

WhatsApp first alerted users to the new privacy policy changes in a notification last week.

The privacy policy explains that as part of the Facebook Companies, WhatsApp gets information from, and shares information with, the other Facebook Companies and it says that they may use the information they get from them, and they may use the information they share with them, to better operate, implement, develop, learn, customise, support, and market their services and their offerings, including the Facebook Company Products.

This means Facebook will now be able to access account information including your phone number, information on how you communicate with other users, and logs of how frequently and how long you use WhatsApp.

Other data that could be shared with Facebook includes your IP address, browser details, language and time zone.

WhatsApp was acquired by Facebook in 2014 and has shared data with its parent company since 2016.

WhatsApp offered a one time opt-out for data sharing in 2016, but now users are being forced to agree to the privacy policy to continue using the app.

Many furious WhatsApp users have taken to Twitter to announce their departure from the app, in light of the new privacy policy.

One person said that they’d just deleted WhatsApp and Instagram from their phone because their new terms and conditions freaked them out, and people are also saying that people should drop their Facebook and Twitter accounts, also Apple too.

And that no one should be on Facebook because their oppressors will go after anyone who doesn’t adhere to their wishes and that everyone should drop any affiliation with Facebook and its subsidiary companies.

Leaving WhatsApp isn’t a drastic step, it’s the sensible choice.

However, even though these are wise words, people put themselves at risk every day because they’re posting and giving out information about themselves every second of the day – if people want privacy, they should get off their phones and all of these platforms, but then social media is the opium of the masses.

And it’s not just Facebook, it’s everything you download and every web page you look at, it’s scary stuff, so perhaps we should just stop using social media and try communicating with real people.

But then every time you leave the house to go shopping a camera somewhere will be recording you. The minute you have a bank account or mobile phone there’s data on you – we can’t have privacy now because we live in an age of technology.

JOIN JABS ARMY

A news outlet has urged their wonderful readers to join a jabs army of volunteers to help get millions of Brits vaccinated quickly against COVID.

There have been so many people that have wanted to play a more active role in defeating this terrifying disease, and now they can.

Through a major Sun campaign, backed by the NHS and Government, you can join 50,000 volunteers in a crucial job, helping to run pop up medical centres designed to immunise 15 million people by March.

It’s a vast logistical challenge which needs you, as a Steward Volunteer, to keep it running smoothly and reliably, and hopefully, this will be the year COVID is conquered and the Sun’s Jabs Army can play an important role in that.

And stars and health chiefs supported this and called for Sun readers to participate.

Match of the Day host Gary Linekar urged the nation to get together and roll up their sleeves to help everyone and he said that the vaccine seems to be the only way out of this hopeless situation.

In the meantime, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that the approval of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine means the light at the end of the COVID tunnel is burning brighter, but that we need one last push to get back to normal by spring.

He said the pandemic has shown the unbelievable spirit of the British people, and he’s asked anyone who can help to come forth and help the UK’s national vaccine effort.

The Sun has joined forces with the NHS and the Royal Voluntary Service to urge readers to volunteer as stewards at the pop-up vaccination centres across the United Kingdom.

And Sun stars, including columnists Jeremy Clarkson and Jane Moore, have promised to do their bit.

Jeremy Clarkson, 60, said, that saying you won’t take the vaccine is like saying you won’t wear an aqualung when diving and that it’s important and we should all do our bit, and he said that he will be getting the vaccine.

The Government wants to see 15 million people immunised by March and local NHS teams will be setting up centres capable of administering thousands of jabs a week in sports halls, conference centres and stadiums.

But more than 50,000 Steward Volunteers will be required through the NHS Volunteer Responder Programme to help them run smoothly and keep people protected.

However, we must remember that an ER nurse tested positive for COVID, 19 days after the first dose of the vaccine, so we must remember that protection is not instant.

And now health experts are weighing in after a local nurse tested positive for COVID 19 more than a week after getting the first of two doses of the Pfizer vaccine.

In a Facebook message posted on December 18, Matthew W, an ER nurse at two different local hospitals, spoke about getting the Pfizer vaccine that day – he told ABC 10News his arm was sore for a day but he experienced no other side effects.

Six days later on Christmas Eve, after working a shift in the COVID 19 unit, Matthew, 45, became ill.

He got the chills and later came down with muscle pains and exhaustion.

The day after Christmas, he went to a drive-up hospital testing site and tested positive for COVID 19, but this isn’t surprising at all and this is what will occur if someone’s exposed even after the jab.

The first dose gives about somewhere around 50 per cent but you need that second dose to get you up to 95 per cent, and it was pointed out that Matthew might have been infected before getting the vaccine.

Chris Whitty warns UK heading into ‘worst point in the pandemic’ as he slams Covid-sceptics

Chris Whitty, the Government’s Chief Medical Officer, has warned that the UK’s heading into the worst point in the pandemic as he advised Britons to limit as much as possible in their social interactions with others outside their household.

Professor Chris Whitty joined Louise Minchin and Dan Walker on BBC Breakfast on Monday to answer questions from members of the public on the new lockdown rules that are in place in England to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

The Chief Medical Officer gave the stark account as he used the opportunity to blast COVID disbelievers for spreading crazy ideas about the scale of the crisis facing the NHS this winter.

He said the situation was extremely serious and warned the country is heading into the worst weeks in terms of the pressure on the NHS of the whole pandemic.

Professor Chris Whitty said that he didn’t believe that the great preponderance of the British public, who are amazingly sensible, think this not happening and he believed that people understood that was a really serious dilemma.

He said that we will get through this and that we would get through this together, but that at this point, we were at the worst point in the pandemic for the United Kingdom, and that there were always going to be cries of people who come up with ridiculous ideas and suggestions of things that are either just not true or a misunderstanding of what’s going on.

He said that anybody who looks at some of the reports that the BBC and other news outlets have done from hospitals. Anyone who talks to a doctor or a nurse operating in the NHS. Anyone who reads any newspaper, they will know this is a really serious dilemma.

He continued that this was not a typical winter and that every winter has its difficulties, but that this was in a different league.

The remarks came as the UK wide death from COVID 19 exceeded 80,000 with infections climbing to more than three million.

Host Louise Minchin also read out a question sent in by Mike, who had asked when the UK would be able to return to life as normal.

In reply, Professor Chris Whitty said that he was confident that things would go back to how they were before and that was not in doubt.

People that have had the vaccine should be required to say at home for at least three weeks after they’ve had the jab, or at least until it’s known that it’s been effective, but it appears as if Boris Johnson is a puppet and someone’s got their hand up his bottom.

And do you think we will go back to what was normal? Of course not, they have us right where they want us and planned us to be, and it’s almost like modern-day slavery, and we should have closed our borders right from the onset of the virus, but then it seems that Great Britain welcomes everyone.

And what we should be having are stories about the people suffering from mental health problems during the lockdown and the people that have suffered as a result of that.

Let’s also have stories on people that have encountered bankruptcy because of the lockdowns, because SAGE unquestionably isn’t concerning themselves with these victims, but countless people suffer from severe mental health problems, which has been made more acute by the lockdown.

Numerous psychiatric doctors have either left or can’t work and the suffering are just left on their own and struggling and when they try to contact someone about it, it’s just blamed on COVID – it appears that COVID is the fall guy.

Woman, 50, Arrested For Sitting On Bench

A woman who has been arrested for supposedly sitting on a bench is a COVID conspirator who believes that the virus is no worse than getting the sniffles.

Tattoo artist Marcia Baker was videoed being arrested by three officers in a Bournemouth park on Saturday.

In the video, which was publicly shared online, she tells them that she was just sitting on a bench, but Marcia Baker, 50, is well known within the Bournemouth area for her resistance to the lockdown and had attended an anti lockdown demonstration in the town on Saturday, before her arrest.

One friend who fell out with her over her COVID conspiracy theories told a news outlet that she’d been into all kinds of conspiracy theories for quite a while but just became more neurotic when the pandemic started last year and that she was going around telling everyone that coronavirus was no more dangerous than getting the sniffles and that it was an attempt to control us all.

She said that she just couldn’t take it anymore and had to quit talking to her because she doesn’t think the virus exists and that it was crazy the stuff that she comes out with.

Marcia Baker works at the Black Pearl Tattoo studio in Bournemouth and is the mother of two daughters who are in their 20s.

Her friend maintained that if there’s a protest against the lockdown, Marcia is there and she said that her views were pretty wild but there was no debating with her because she’s convinced that COVID is one big conspiracy.

The footage, which has been shared extensively online, shows three police officers surrounding Marcia Baker in Bournemouth for supposedly leaving her house more than once in a day.

The clip then shows her being handcuffed and led away by officers as she repeatedly tells them that she was just sitting on a bench.

But Dorset Police announced the video was planned, staged-managed and recorded by members of an anti lockdown protest group.

Dorset Police’s Assistant Chief Constable Mark Callaghan said they believe the video was planned, stage-managed and recorded by members of the protest group who turned up in various areas, some of whom refused to engage and give their details.

He said that if people refuse to give their details in such circumstances, then it leaves officers with little option but to arrest until the details are confirmed.

It shouldn’t matter what this woman believes in. Police shouldn’t be arresting you for sitting on a bench on your own, and on Marcia Baker’s Facebook page, she posted a statement from organisers of Saturday’s demonstrations which said that they would be seeking legal advice after it was suggested that they staged the events.

There was video proof and similar things have been going on for months with the police over abusing their powers, and it appears to be the same everywhere, with police stopping people in their vehicles, asking if their journey is essential.

And what this woman believes in is irrelevant. I might believe the moon is made of cheese, but it doesn’t make it okay for me to be arrested for sitting on a bench.

What possible harm was she doing, sitting on a bench getting some fresh air? And it’s good for mental health to be outdoors and if anyone can prove that she was a danger to society sitting on a bench, then I’d love to hear your views.

It seems that we’re headed for communism and nobody appears to notice or care and it’s mind-blowing.

Every Social Media App And Website That Donald Trump Has Been Banned From So Far

Donald Trump’s ban from Twitter was perhaps the biggest and most significant social media suspension ever in the entire history of the United States presidency.

Donald Trump’s reliance on Twitter which he often used to share his spectators no matter how questionable they were was arguably his best means of communication, but following Wednesday’s riot in Washington DC, Twitter decided that they couldn’t risk any further provocations of violence and pulled the plug on @realDonaldTrump and his 57,000 tweets.

The Twitter embargo is just one of the many major platforms to either stop Donald Trump from using their apps or websites or impose major restrictions on any of his content.

To date, Donald Trump has been banned from 14 different websites and social media apps.

So without further ado, here are what websites and apps Donald Trump can no longer use.

Twitter banned Donald Trump on Friday 8th January over concerns that he would encourage more violence from his supporters on the US capital.

Facebook originally locked Donald Trump out of his account on their site on 6th January for only 24 hours but prolonged that ban to last for two weeks until there had been a peaceful transition of leadership to the Biden administration.

Instagram is owned by Facebook so the same prohibition pertains to Donald Trump on that app too. The ban was confirmed by the head of Instagram Adam Mosseri on 7th January.

Google was the first to raise concerns and ban the pro-Trump social media app Parler when it pulled the app from their Google Play store for failing to moderate those spread of threats of violence.

In a statement, a Google spokesperson said that to protect user safety on Google Play, their longstanding policies require that apps displaying user-generated content have moderation policies and implementation that extracts egregious content like posts that encourage violence.

Following Google’s lead, Apple also banned Parler from their app store, and in a lengthy statement, an Apple spokesperson cited that Parler had not upheld its commitment to moderate and eliminate harmful or dangerous content inciting violence and illegal activity and that it wasn’t in compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines.

Parler has also been banned from Amazon’s web hosting service after finding numerous posts that encouraged violence.

In a letter from Amazon Web Services to Parler published by NBC News, Amazon said that recently they’d seen a steady rise in this violent content on their website, all of which violated their terms and it was plain that Parler didn’t have an effective method to comply with the AWS terms of service.

YouTube, the video website, which is owned by Google, put out a long statement following the riots claiming that they’ve removed thousands of videos that spread misinformation about the election results including some shared by Donald Trump. They added that any channel continuing to share fraudulent information will now get a warning.

Donald Trump was banned from Snapchat following Wednesday’s riot. Speaking to Business Insider, a Snapchat spokesperson said that they were not currently promoting the president’s content on Snapchat’s Discover platform and that they would not amplify voices who encourage racial violence and injustice by giving them free promotion on Discover.

They said that racial violence and injustice have no place in our society and that they stand together with all who seek peace, love, equality and justice in America.

Ironically Donald Trump has spent much of the year attempting to ban TikTok because of security interests encompassing the Chinese company. However, TikTok has turned the tables and confirmed that they will be removing any of Donald Trump’s speeches that they consider to have prompted any violence as well as hashtags such as #stormthecapitol and #patriotparty.

Twitch, the popular stream service, which is predominately used by gamers, also moved swiftly on Thursday to eliminate any threats of violence.

A Twitch spokesperson told Axios that in light of the shocking raid on the Capitol, they have disabled President Trump’s Twitch channel, and given the current unusual circumstances and the President’s inflammatory rhetoric, they believe this was a necessary step to protect the community and to prevent Twitch from being used to encourage further violence.

On Friday, Reddit reportedly banned the subreddit ‘r/Donald Trump, talking to Axios, Reddit added, Reddit’s site-wide policies prohibit content that advocates hate, or promotes, glorifies, incites, or calls for violence against groups of people or individuals.

Following this, they have been proactively reaching out to moderators to remind them of their policies and to offer support or resources as needed.

Even Donald Trump’s merchandise is getting pulled. Shopify has confirmed that both the Trump organisation and the president’s official merchandise store will no longer be on their services because of their zero tolerance towards violence policy.

Pinterest is the strangest one and the one that’s generated several jokes, but despite not having a Pinterest account, the site has been banning any pro-Trump topics from their service since November, after the election was confirmed for Joe Biden.

A spokesperson said that Pinterest wasn’t a place for threats, promotion of violence or offensive content and their team was continuing to monitor and remove objectionable content, including misinformation and conspiracy theories that might encourage violence.

A viral image from Fox News has suggested that Donald Trump is banned from Spotify too but there have been no announcements as to whether this is correct. Either way, Donald Trump is going to struggle to keep himself entertained on the internet now.

But this is what happens when content becomes charged with hatred and violence with plans to disrupt. However, these platforms regularly permit hate speech, and they openly allowed Donald Trump to do this until now.

And isn’t this just another nail in the coffin for free speech? And anyone that has a different view will be told to shut up, but then we might be giving people like Hitler a free pass if they don’t.

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