Facebook

Twitter on Wednesday put President Trump on notice: If he does not stop breaking the platform's rules, he will be permanently banned.

The state and federal officials say Facebook's acquisitions of WhatsApp and Instagram violated competition laws and served to stifle rivals by giving the social network an unfair advantage.

The U.S. Department of Justice alleged Facebook reserved more than 2,600 jobs over almost two years specifically for temporary visa holders it intended to sponsor for permanent residency.

The move is a reversal of Facebook's longstanding reluctance to block problematic content. Critics say public health misinformation has flourished on the social network.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who previously considered such claims free speech, said his thinking has "evolved." Survivors had lobbied the social network to remove posts that deny the Holocaust.

The social media companies said the accounts and pages were linked to Russian actors that had launched "hack-and-leak" operations to hurt Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.

False claims that blame left-wing activists for wildfires in Oregon have spread on social media. To stop the rumors, some experts say platforms should take inspiration from the stock market.

Most of the operation's activity focused on Chinese interests in the South China Sea but also included some content about U.S. politics.

"We're increasingly seeing attempts to undermine the legitimacy of our elections from within our own borders," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says.

Researchers say one of the operation's goals was to steer left-leaning voters away from the Biden-Harris campaign ahead of the November election.