Twitter permanently suspended President Donald Trump’s account on Friday.
The company said in a tweet it made the decision “because of the risk of escalating violence.”
Twitter said it feared Trump’s latest tweets were interpreted as pro-terrorist and that plans for tomorrow’s armed protests had already intensified inside and outside the platform, including a planned attack on US Capitol buildings and state buildings on January 17.
Twitter’s Statement
Suspension is like a ban: Trump is no longer able to access his account and his tweets and profile picture have been deleted. Trump had 88.7 million followers before his suspension. Institution accounts like @POTUS and @WhiteHouse are still active.
Trump later sent a statement to the @POTUS account before it was revealed that it was being deleted. Later on Friday, the same statement was shared by the Trump campaign account on Twitter before the entire account became permanent.
“As we have said, using another account to try to avoid suspension is against our rules,” a Twitter spokesman said in a statement.
Twitter said it would not suspend intuitional accounts like @POTUS unless it had to in order to avoid real-world harm, but that it could limit those accounts’ capabilities. Those accounts will be transferred to the next administration.
Trump’s Reaction
In a statement, Trump accused Twitter employees of “engaging with Democrats and the Radical Left to remove my account from their place, silencing me – and you, the 75,000,000 big patriots who voted for me. Twitter may be a private company, but without the government’s gift of Section 230 they would not exist for long.”
Trump was referring to Section 230 of the Social Security Act, a law that protects technology platforms from legal obligations for their users’ submissions and moderation. Trump’s campaign account also shares an image of a blue-and-red logo with a yellow hammer and scissors, symbols associated with communism.
Suspending Trump’s account is a step Twitter has resisted taking for all of Trump’s presidency. While President Barack Obama was the first president to use Twitter, he mainly used the institutional @POTUS account, and did not rely on it as heavily as Trump has to get his message out. Trump used his personal Twitter account to stoke supporters and even announce personnel changes before putting out a press release.
“Without tweets, I would not be here,” Trump told the Financial Times in a 2017 speech.
In addition to accessing Twitter or Facebook for the foreseeable future, any of Trump’s post-presidential plans will be paired with a small megaphone. While Trump can easily jump to another stage like Parler, which has charged itself as a less restrictive platform, his messages there will be sent directly to a much smaller group of fans.
What Next?
Without access to Twitter or Facebook for the foreseeable future, any of Trump’s post-presidency plans will be funneled through a smaller megaphone. While Trump can easily jump to another platform like Parler, which has billed itself as a less restrictive platform, his messages there will be directly delivered to a much smaller group of followers.
Twitter has enacted special laws to liberate world-class leaders in many of its policies, even if they are to record or reduce the distribution of policy-breaking messages.
But some of Trump’s same friends criticize Trump after the violence in the U.S. Capitol, Twitter finally took the decision that many had long wanted.
Notably, Vice-President-elect Harris had asked Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey to directly block Trump during his 2019 presidential campaign. At the time, even the strongest technical critic Sen Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. , declined to join the call during the debate.
Following the suspension, a number of GOP members often criticized Twitter for alleged bias against observers in protesting the so-called cultural cancellation and questioned why Twitter had not taken the same action against the Iranian leader.
The decision to suspend Trump’s Twitter account came after Facebook made a similar call, extending the 24-hour suspension to anonymity which CEO Mark Zuckerberg said would last at least until Trump’s term expires.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Twitter shares dropped by more than 3% after hours in the news.
Facebook And Twitter
Trump was first temporarily banned by Facebook and Twitter on January 6 during a riot in which his supporters attacked the American Capitol while lawmakers continued the process of counting votes of the Electoral College. Many lawmakers and even former members of the Trump administration have criticized Trump for encouraging his supporters to reject the election results and to protest at the Capitol. Congress later reaffirmed Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election.
As the violence continued, Trump sent a message on twitter urging non-violence, although he later released a video message that reiterated his unconfirmed claim that the election had been stolen from him and told the rioters, “We love you.”
Twitter first blocked some of Trump’s tweets from public viewing on Wednesday and required him to delete them in order to regain access to his account. After being removed, he was locked out of the account for another 12 hours. However, Twitter has warned, future policy violations could lead to a permanent suspension of Trump’s account.
In his first tweet after returning to Twitter on January 7, Trump posted a video message urging calmness and giving something very close to the consent speech at the moment, saying there would be a switch to the new administration. However, he told his followers, “Our amazing journey is just beginning.”
On Friday, Trump tweeted for the second time since his initial suspension, saying, “The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!”
Later, Trump wrote on Twitter saying, “For all those who have asked, I will not be going to the January 20 inauguration.”
Synopsis
Twitter permanently suspended President Donald Trump’s account on Friday.
The decision came after Facebook made a similar call recently, extending the 24-hour suspension to anonymity.
Trump was first temporarily banned by both tech platforms on Wednesday amid unrest in which his supporters attacked the US Capitol while lawmakers continued the process of counting votes of the Electoral College.
