Twitter has permanently banned the still serving President of the United States Donald Trump. The social media company said that it took this drastic measure out of fear of future acts of violence.
Twitter released a statement explaining its decision saying that, “In the context of horrific events this week, we made it clear on Wednesday that additional violations of the Twitter Rules would potentially result in this very course of action. Our public interest framework exists to enable the public to hear from elected officials and world leaders directly. It is built on a principle that the people have a right to hold power to account in the open.”
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“After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them — specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter — we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence,” added Twitter.
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After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence.https://t.co/CBpE1I6j8Y
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) January 8, 2021
Last week, after the turmoil at the Capitol building transpired, Twitter only temporarily suspended President Trump. It chose do so because he tweeted things like, “These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long.” That was how the President of the United States described the rioters who attacked his nation’s Capital.
On Friday January 8th the President tweeted, “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!!!”
Twitter found that statement to be in violation of its policy forbidding the use of its platform for the glorification of violence. The President also used Twitter to declare that he would not attend the inauguration of President Elect Joe Biden on January 20; attendance at an inauguration by the outgoing president is considered a way to ensure the validation of a change in the office, especially when the departing president lost the election to his replacement. Twitter cited this as a declaration by Mr. Trump that the election was not valid.
Twitter said that it had given the President fair warning and that it had made it clear going back years that his accounts were not above its rules prohibiting the incitement of violence and more.
President Trump attempted to get around his ban by using other accounts, such as the official Presidential account called @POTUS. On that account he condemned Twitter for the ban accusing it of working for the Democrats.
“As I have been saying for a long time, Twitter has gone further and further in banning free speech, and tonight, Twitter employees have coordinated with the Democrats and Radical Left in removing my account from their platform, to silence me — and YOU, the 75,000,000 great patriots who voted for me,” posted Trump. The company deleted all of President Trump’s posts from that account.
Facebook has taken similar steps and banned Donald Trump for the rest of his term in office, but not permanently.
