Why Twitter permanently suspends Trump's account
Twitter Inc. banned President Trump’s personal account, citing the risk of further incitement of violence and closing off one of his main communication tools following the attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of his followers.
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
Twitter gave Trump many, many second chances over his four years as president, keeping him on the platform due to the company’s belief that speech by world leaders is in the public interest, even if it breaks the rules.
After Twitter took the major step Friday of permanently banning President Trump’s @realdonaldtrump Twitter account, the President aimed to get the last word in through his government account @POTUS which has a fraction of the Twitter followers but still offered the President a megaphone on the service to send out a few last tweets.
The tweets were deleted within minutes by Twitter which does not allow banned individuals to circumvent a full ban by tweeting under alternate accounts.
However, the official account for the President of the United States, @POTUS, remains live. Twitter said its policy enables world leaders to speak to the public, but that these accounts “are not above our rules entirely” and can’t use Twitter to incite violence.
After the the announcement, from celebrities to comedians and political figures, even companies took to social media with a multitude of reactions, poking fun at the president.
And how is YOUR day going? pic.twitter.com/56SHIiWCPB
— Mark Hamill (@HamillHimself) January 8, 2021
It’s now safe to turn off your computer.
— Microsoft (@Microsoft) January 9, 2021
This is the first time a sitting president has been banned from Twitter going back to 1812
— Dave Brown (@dave_brown24) January 8, 2021
???? pic.twitter.com/HHUJylI3J2
— Tom Anderson (@myspacetom) January 9, 2021
WHAT’S MY MYSPACE PASSWORD pic.twitter.com/tk0PFwuzYM
— Flic Everett (@fliceverett) January 8, 2021
Trump trying to get White House staffers to let him use their Twitter accounts pic.twitter.com/fQ0ZPGBvKa
— Tom Zohar (@TomZohar) January 8, 2021
Moreover, Facebook Inc., which announced a temporary suspension of Mr. Trump after the riot, said Thursday that it would extend that action indefinitely and at least through the end of Mr. Trump’s term. And late Friday Alphabet Inc.’s Google suspended from its app store the social-media app Parler, which some Trump supporters and other conservatives had flocked to over the past year, saying the service had violated its policies. Apple Inc. threatened to do the same.