Twitter has taken the step of suspending the President of the United States from its service for 12 hours.

The move comes following a shocking and shameful day in American politics that saw supporters of Donald Trump storm the Capitol Building in Washington DC while congress was counting the votes that would have officially confirmed Joe Biden as the next President.

Trump has been accused of fomenting the anger that led to the incident, which resulted in widespread chaos, delayed Biden's inevitable confirmation and left one woman dead.

Several hours after protestors had taken over the Capitol Building, Trump posted a short video to Twitter asking his supporters to go home but reiterating his allegation that the election had been "stolen" and continuing to assert that he had won "by a landslide".

Twitter initially prohibited users from retweeting or commenting on the video, noting that it had the potential to incite violence, but later decided to remove the video and issue Trump with a 12-hour ban.

In a statement, the social media network said: "We have required the removal of three @realDonaldTrump Tweets that were posted earlier today for repeated and severe violations of our Civic Integrity Policy.

"This means that the account of @realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours following the removal of these Tweets. If the Tweets are not removed, the account will remain locked."

Facebook has also blocked Trump's video and have also issued him with a 24-hour ban from the platform.