Social media platforms are cracking down to prevent Inauguration Day violence

Over the four years of the Trump presidency, social media platforms generally took a soft line in enforcing their policies against threats and misinformation, allowing most borderline speech, including the president’s, to stand.

In the wake of a deadly riot at the US Capitol aimed at disrupting the transfer of power, and ahead of an inauguration feared to provoke new attacks around the country, those same social media are taking a notably more aggressive approach.