President Trump will spend the last 12 days of his presidency completely interrupted on Twitter, after the company imposed a permanent suspension on his personal account on Friday due to the risk of “incitement to violence”.
“After a careful analysis of the recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them – especially the way they are received and interpreted on Twitter and outside it – I permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement to violence The company said in a blog post.
A source on Facebook told The Daily Beast that the permanent ban on their platforms is “probable”, but not final.
Trump used Twitter as his favorite megaphone during his presidency, using it to bypass attendees to spread misinformation, insults and false allegations about election fraud.
The permanent suspension, which comes two days after inciting a violent mob to cross the Chapter, also follows a report on hundreds of Twitter employees demanding action from CEO Jack Dorsey.
Conformable Washington Post, hundreds of employees signed a letter calling for Trump’s permanent suspension and launching an investigation into how the platform itself helped fuel the January 6 events, acting as “Trump’s megaphone.”
The social media company has somewhat stepped up surveillance in recent months, adding labels about election misinformation and restricting engagement with some of Trump’s wildest tweets.
But critics inside and outside the platforms have been advocating for years for the account to be completely eliminated, arguing that the trafficking of dangerous misinformation and incitement to violence has outweighed any concerns about free speech. (“When the robbery begins, the shooting begins,” he wrote on Twitter in May during the Black Lives Matter protests.)
Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) has been calling on the platform since Friday morning to implement a ban “in the interests of our national security and public safety.” Elected Vice President Kamala Harris has been pushing for Trump to face a permanent ban on Twitter since 2019, long before the rhetoric urged supporters to take action on January 6th.
“A lot of people could and did predict that this would happen,” a Facebook source told The Daily Beast, referring to the Capitol riot that left five people in agreement. “The possibility of this happening again was great, because this guy [Trump] It’s damn good. “
The suspension is likely to cut Trump deeply. As reported by The Daily Beast, he seemed more livid about being temporarily blocked from his Twitter account on Wednesday than he did about the deadly revolt taking place in the heart of American democracy.
A source told The Daily Beast that Trump is angry that he can’t tweet, while another person said he complained that it was proof that Big Tech has silenced conservatives and tried to help cover up the “crime.” from the century that took place during the 2020 presidential election
Twitter explained that two of Trump’s latest tweets led to immediate action on Friday because they violated the platform’s policy against “glorifying violence.” In one, Friday morning, he called his supporters “great American patriots” who he said would have a “GIANT VOICE long in the future,” which Twitter said could easily be seen as an encouragement to those who orchestrated the violence at the Capitol.
Even his tweet, announcing his own plans not to participate in the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, ignited the flames by sending the message “that the elections were not legitimate,” he said on Twitter.
“In the context of this week’s horrific events, I said on Wednesday that further violations of the Twitter Rules could lead to this very course of action,” Twitter wrote in a blog post, along with an analysis of recent Trump tweets.
While Trump can still use the government accounts @POTUS and @WhiteHouse, Twitter said, these accounts can also be suspended if it becomes clear that they are “used to evade a ban.”
Shortly after Twitter kicked off Trump late Friday, gaming site Discord said it banned the “Donald” server because of its “open connection to an online forum used to incite violence and plan an insurrection.” army”.
At the same time, Parler, the social networking site seen as a safe haven for MAGA fanatics, was suspended by Google Play due to a lack of moderation for posts aimed at “inciting continued violence” and received a deadline of 24 hours for Apple to take action to reduce content or expel it from the App Store. “We have received numerous complaints about the unacceptable content in your Parler service, allegations that the Parler application was used to plan, coordinate and facilitate illegal activities in Washington DC on January 6, 2021 that led (among other things) to loss of life human injuries, numerous injuries and the destruction of property “, Apple would have told the site.
And while many enjoyed Friday’s news that they would no longer have to see Trump’s strange and bizarre tweets, there was another unexpected end result: The daily show suitably noted, with the removal of Trump, Melania Trump’s BeBest campaign against cyber aggression may have just seen its first success.
– Noah Shachtman and Asawin Suebsaeng contributed to the reporting