Selena Gomez has accused major social media platforms, including Twitter and Facebook, of "failing the American people" after thousands of extremists breached the US Capitol on Wednesday in support of Donald Trump.
After Trump urged his supporters to fight against the certification of Joe Biden's electoral win, a mob stormed the Capitol building in violent scenes that left at least one person dead.
As Trump continued to stoke his supporters online, Twitter deleted two of his tweets before suspending his account for 12 hours for the first time ever.
However, while some were pleased with the decision, many felt it was too little too late after years spent accusing tech companies of failing to control the spread of disinformation and violent rhetoric on their platforms, including from the president himself.
Delete his fucking account already, @Jack. Jesus. What are you afraid his supporters are gonna do? Storm the Capitol to overturn the legal results of an election?
So, @Twitter @TwitterSafety have removed 3 tweets & suspended Trump's ability to tweet for 12hrs. It took an armed coup for real action from Twitter. Facilitating this for years, & doing something with a fortnight left of Trump, is the literal definition of too little, too late.
And now Selena Gomez has contributed to the conversation, calling out tech companies for their role in the riots and imploring them to "fix things moving forward".
In a note posted to Twitter, Selena called out Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Google by name as well as a series of their CEOs and most senior employees, before @-ing them directly in the accompanying tweet.
"Today is the result of allowing people with hate in their hearts to use platforms that should be used to bring people together and allow people to build community," she wrote.
. @Facebook, @Instagram, @Twitter, @Google, Mark Zuckerberg, @SherylSandberg, @jack, @Sundarpichai, @SusanWojcicki
"Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google, Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg, Jack Dorsey, Sundar Pichai, Susan Wojcicki — you have all failed the American people today and I hope you're going to fix things moving forward," she added.
This isn't the first time Selena has condemned the spread of disinformation on social media. Late last year, she called out Facebook for the disinfomation about the COVID-19 vaccines that was proliferating across the platform.
"Scientific disinformation has and will cost lives," she wrote on Twitter. "@Facebook said they don't allow lies about COVID and vaccines to be spread on their platforms. So how come all of this is still happening? Facebook is going to be responsible for thousands of deaths if they don't take action now!"
Scientific disinformation has and will cost lives. @Facebook said they don’t allow lies about COVID and vaccines to be spread on their platforms. So how come all of this is still happening? Facebook is going to be responsible for thousands of deaths if they don’t take action now! https://t.co/IAtDpNT5Tt