Facebook removes profile and livestream of man who threatened to bomb US Capitol building

A pickup truck is parked on the sidewalk in front of the Library of Congress’ Thomas Jefferson Building, as seen from a window of the US Capitol, on Aug 19, 2021, in Washington. A man sitting in the pickup truck outside the Library of Congress has told police that he has a bomb, and that’s led to a massive law enforcement response to determine whether it's an operable explosive device. — AP

LOS ANGELES: Facebook removed the profile of a man who claimed he had a bomb in his truck near the US Capitol building, in addition to taking down the livestream during which he made the threats.

Floyd Ray Roseberry surrendered to US Capitol police officers Thursday afternoon, according to the New York Times, after several hours of negotiations with law enforcement officials. Staffers in nearby government buildings, including the Library of Congress, were evacuated.

Roseberry’s Facebook and Instagram accounts were removed, and any other posts with his livestreamed video will be detected and automatically removed, a Facebook spokesperson confirmed to Variety.

“We are in contact with law enforcement and have removed the suspect's videos and profile from Facebook and Instagram. Our teams are working to identify, remove and block any other instances of the suspect’s videos which do not condemn, neutrally discuss the incident or provide neutral news coverage of the issue,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

In addition, the company temporarily prevented people on Facebook and Instagram from creating accounts with the same name as Roseberry.

Capitol police reported that Roseberry drove a black pickup truck on the sidewalk near the Library of Congress at around 9.15am ET Thursday. When police officers arrived, it appeared that he held a detonator in his hand. After negotiating with him, police said, it was unclear whether or not he actually had explosives in his car.

During his livestreamed video, Roseberry demanded to speak to US President Joe Biden and criticised the Democratic Party. He also called himself a “patriot” and said he didn't want to die or hurt anyone. – Variety.com/Reuters