In the wake of last week’s deadly riot at the Capitol, Sen. Mark Warner is urging Facebook and other social media giants to preserve “digital evidence” of the chaotic scenes that engulfed the building.
“After Wednesday’s insurrectionist attack on our nation’s Capitol, I’m calling on telecom and social media companies to preserve digital evidence of the Capitol riot,” the Virginia Democrat tweeted on Saturday.
In a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Warner states that “the United States Capitol is now a crime scene.”
CAPITOL PROTESTS: FBI MANHUNT FOR RIOT SUSPECTS GOES HIGH-TECH
“In case you have not already done so, I request that Facebook work to immediately preserve any and all posts, communications, videos and other media, meta-data, cloud backups, and subscriber information, whether currently on your platform or in any backup or archived state, across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, that may be associated with Wednesday’s insurrectionist attack on the United States Capitol,” Warner, a Democrat from Virginia, wrote.
“We are continuing our ongoing, proactive outreach to law enforcement and have worked to quickly provide responses to valid legal requests,” a Facebook spokesperson told Fox News, via email Sunday. “We are removing content, disabling accounts, and working with law enforcement to protect against direct threats to public safety.”
Images of pro-Trump rioters storming the Capitol Building sent shockwaves around the world. The violence left five people dead, including a Capitol Police officer and sparked a high-tech FBI manhunt for suspects involved in the riot.
FACEBOOK BLOCKS TRUMP INDEFINITELY AFTER CAPITOL RIOT RESPONSE
Facebook is also in the spotlight over its decision to indefinitely block President Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts following his response to the Capitol riot.
In a Facebook post on Thursday, Zuckerberg wrote that “the shocking events of the last 24 hours clearly demonstrate that President Donald Trump intends to use his remaining time in office to undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power to his elected successor, Joe Biden.”
“We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great,” he added. “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.”
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Fox News’ Stephanie Pagones and Brooke Singman contributed to this article.
Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogers
