Days after social media giant Twitter banned President Trump from its platform in the wake of the violent takeover of the US Capitol, San Francisco police braced themselves for a demonstration by its supporters at company headquarters on Monday.
While there is no official word on a mass demonstration, there has been social media traffic urging the president’s supporters to gather at Twitter’s headquarters.
The thousands of Twitter employees who would normally be working on Monday have not been in the building since March 2020, when they were told to work remotely due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
In a statement to the San Francisco Chronicle Sunday night, a company spokesman said Twitter respects “people’s right to voice their opinions.”
“While we respect people’s right to express their views, last week we were transparent about the factors that led to our decision,” the spokesperson said in an email. “We have nothing to add, but wanted to confirm that we will continue to have mandatory home work support for Twitter employees.”
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San Francisco police told the newspaper they had plans – including enlisting mutual assistance from nearby law enforcement agencies – if necessary.
Twitter announced Friday afternoon that it had permanently suspended Mr Trump’s account over concerns that his tweets could incite violence.
In a statement, the company said Twitter officials had reviewed Mr Trump’s tweets from the past week and determined they violated the site’s policies.
The suspension came just days after Trump supporters forcibly took over the Capitol, resulting in the deaths of five people when Congress began certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 victory.
“In the context of horrific events this week, we made it clear on Wednesday that additional violations of Twitter’s rules could potentially result in this course of action,” Twitter wrote at the time. “Our public interest framework is to enable the public to hear directly from elected officials and world leaders. It is based on the principle that people have the right to hold power publicly to account.”
“However, we made it clear years ago that these accounts are not completely above our rules and cannot use Twitter to incite violence, among other things.”
The statement includes Twitter’s documentation of Trump tweets that the company said had violated standards for “glorifying violence.”
Twitter wasn’t alone in taking action against the president. Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube have also suspended Trump accounts, and Amazon, Apple, and Google have all booted pro-Trump Parler from their platforms.