Pro-Trump election Facebook group 'Stop the Steal' banned after calling for violence

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Trump to continue legal challenges after Biden’s projected win

President issues statement saying his election lawsuits in key states will move forward; John Roberts reports.

Facebook banned a pro-Trump group after posts suggesting "worrying calls for violence" surrounding the highly contentious results of the 2020 election. 

"Stop the Steal" had a following of more than 35,000 people and were using their platform on social media to unite protesters behind President Trump's baseless claims of election fraud in certain battleground states where votes were still being counted even four days after Election Day. 

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Trump has filed lawsuits in states such as Nevada, Georgia, and Pennsylvania, alleging illegal ballots cast after Election Day was being counted towards the final tally, and that poll watchers weren't being allowed to oversee the count. His campaign has not produced any evidence to prove this is true but says that they will forge ahead in prosecuting these cases come Monday. 

"In line with the exceptional measures that we are taking during this period of heightened tension, we have removed the Group 'Stop the Steal,' which was creating real-world events," Facebook said in a statement to The Associated Press. "The group was organized around the delegitimization of the election process, and we saw worrying calls for violence from some members of the group."

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Several groups appear to be calling for a civil war, inciting violence against journalists and demanding the redo the election entirely.

Numerous pro-Trump protests have taken place at ballot counting venues in battleground states, where demonstrators, some carrying guns, have hollered mixed messages-- in some cases chanting to "Stop the count" while in others shouting "Count the votes!"

Despite the "Stop the Steal" group being shut down on Facebook, several other groups rallying support behind Trump's lawsuits have cropped up on other social media platforms. 

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Trump and his campaign have peddled the contents of his lawsuits on Twitter, and Twitter has in turn flagged over a dozen posts by the president as containing information that could be "misleading." 

On Friday, the Fox News Decision Desk called the 2020 election for Democrat Joe Biden, declaring him the 46th president-elect of the United States.