Twitter permanently suspends President Trump’s personal account, the social media company announced Friday evening, saying it took the action due to recent posts causes the “risk of further incitement of violence.”
“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,” Twitter said in a series of tweets with a blog post explaining its decision shared on its TwitterSafety account.
Twitter in “a comprehensive analysis of our policy enforcement approach” stated the two tweets after “assessing the language” violated their company’s policy against the glorification of violence and chose to act based on its interpretation.
“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,” Twitter said in a blog post regarding the permanent suspension. “These two Tweets must be read in the context of broader events in the country and the ways in which the President’s statements can be mobilized by different audiences, including to incite violence, as well as in the context of the pattern of behavior from this account in recent weeks.”
Trump tweeted only twice on Friday that would end up being the final two for the president to post on his personal account. The first tweet was in regards to his supporter’s who he said their “Giant VOICE” will not “be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!”
“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!!!” Trump tweeted Friday morning.
The second tweet was Trump officially announcing that he would not be attending President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration.
“To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th,” Trump tweet.
On Wednesday, following the mob storming into the nation Capitol as Congress was certifying the Electoral College votes, Twitter removed three of Trump’s tweets and locked his account for 12 hours until he deletes the post in what the company said were in violation of the rules. The social media company also threatened to permanently suspend Trump if he continues to violate the rules again.
“As a result of the unprecedented and ongoing violent situation in Washington, D.C., we have required the removal of three @realDonaldTrump Tweets that were posted earlier today for repeated and severe violations of our Civic Integrity policy,” Twitter said.
One of the tweets Twitter removed included a video from the president calling on the rioters to go home while repeating his claims of voter fraud.
“I know your pain. I know your hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us,” Trump said in the video. “It was a landslide election, and everyone knows it — especially the other side. But you have to go home now. We have to have peace.”
In permanently suspending the Twitter account of Trump, it is seen as one of the strongest actions taken against the president by a social media company and a step further compared to how other platforms actions. Facebook announced Thursday that it would be suspending Trump’s access to his personal Facebook page and Instagram for “at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete” with the potential of extending it indefinitely. The video game streaming site Twitch on Thursday also disabled Trump’s channel while Snapchat on Wednesday locked Trump’s account.
In a letter written this week, over three hundred Twitter employees demanded that the company’s leaders permanently suspend Trump’s Twitter account due to his actions surrounding what they believe led to the breaching of the Capitol by Trump supporters on Wednesday.
“Despite our efforts to serve the public conversation, as Trump’s megaphone, we helped fuel the deadly events of January 6th,” the letter reads. “We request an investigation into how our public policy decisions led to the amplification of serious anti-democratic threats. We must learn from our mistakes in order to avoid causing future harm.”
The actions from Twitter are seen to cause problems in the days ahead for the Trump administration in complying with the Presidential Records Act of 1978. The act tasks the administration in the final days of the presidency to begin the preservation of presidential materials and communications for the National Archives, but such task might be more difficult to do now that Trump’s account is permanently suspended.
45Capitol HillCapitol RiotFacebookInstagramPresident TrumpPresidential Records Act of 1978Trump AdministrationTwitchTwitterWhite HouseWhite House News
What do you think?