Twitter Permanently Blocked Trump's Account

FREEDOM AND SAFETY

Twitter Permanently Blocked Trump's Account

stop-trump.jpg

Twitter suspended Donald Trump’s account for the site Friday evening in the latest escalation by social media companies against a president they accuse of spreading misinformation and inciting violence.

In a post to the site, Twitter explained its decision to block Trump from sharing posts with his 88.7 million followers, citing the attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of pro-Trump supporters.

“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,” the company said. “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.”

“However, we made it clear going back years that these accounts are not above our rules entirely and cannot use Twitter to incite violence, among other things,” the statement continued. “We will continue to be transparent around our policies and their enforcement.”

A day earlier, Facebook suspended Trump’s account on its platform for similar reasons. Initially, Twitter removed a handful of Trump’s tweets that came after the siege on the Capitol. For months it had flagged posts by the president that the site said contained misinformation.

Former first lady Michelle Obama posted a statement Thursday asking social media companies to permanently ban Trump from their platforms.

“Now is the time for Silicon Valley companies to stop enabling this monstrous behavior - and go even further than they have already by permanently banning this man from their platforms and putting in place policies to prevent their technology from being used by the nation’s leaders to fuel insurrection,” Obama wrote in her statement.