A top Facebook executive said in a blog post Tuesday it would remove all content that mentions "stop the steal."
"With continued attempts to organize events against the outcome of the U.S. presidential election that can lead to violence and use of the term by those involved in (the recent) violence in D.C., we're taking this additional step in the lead up to the inauguration," Facebook's vice president of integrity Guy Rosen said in the post.
The social media company said it would start removing content immediately and throughout the days before the inauguration of U.S. president-elect Joe Biden. Facebook said the decision was the result of the use of "stop the steal" by some users to organize events and rallies protesting the outcome of the Nov. 3 election.
"It may take some time to scale up our enforcement of this new step but we have already removed a significant number of posts," the company said in a separate post late Monday U.S. time.
"Stop the Steal" has become a rallying cry of President Donald Trump's supporters following his election loss. The phrase refers to Trump's accusations of election fraud and the theft of legitimate Trump votes.
The tag has become popular on Twitter. It is commonly used in conspiracy-theory posts about the election.
Facebook has indefinitely suspended Trump's official account. Facebook said it will continue to ban advertisements related to U.S. politics.
Facebook said it had introduced "emergency measures" to curb unwanted content. One of the measures includes a new mandatory review for group administrators for posts flagged for hate speech or content inciting violence.
Critics said Facebook's decision to ban these posts was too little, too late. If Facebook had acted earlier the Capitol violence might have been prevented, they said.
