A day after suspending Donald Trump, the outgoing President of the United States of America (U.S.A.,) temporarily, Twitter permanently suspended his account.
The action against Donald Trump’s Twitter account came after the Washington DC riot by his supporters and followers.
A Twitter official cited “the risk of further incitement of violence” as the major reason to block Mr. Trump’s account permanently.
The president’s account, with 88 million followers, was first banned for 12 hours.
As per sources, a few tweets of Donald Trump violated guidelines of Twitter’s civic integrity policy and led to a massive riot and attack on Capitol building.
Twitter officials in a tweet said, “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.”
Immediately after the tweet, the account of Mr. Trump disappeared.
In addition to his official account, Trump’s attempts to tweet from associated accounts also were blocked.
Briefing about the reason behind the permanent block of Donald Trump’s Twitter handle, the officials 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.” Twitter further added, “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 and cannot use Twitter to incite violence.”
The post continued, “We will continue to be transparent around our policies and their enforcement.”
A Twitter employee said they conducted a meeting on the morning of the 8th of January, many signed a plea and requested to ban Donald Trump’s account permanently.
The employee who wished to be anonymous said, “A lot of us are so happy, and so proud to work for a company that did the right thing.”
Hours after the ban, Donald Trump took to a Twitter handle named @POTUS account, railing against Twitter, Democrats, and “the Radical Left,” in a series of tweets.
However, Twitter banned @POTUS account also.
A Twitter spokesperson said, “As we’ve said, using another account to try to evade a suspension is against our rules. We have taken steps to enforce this with regard to recent Tweets from the @POTUS.”
In the first one, Trump wrote: “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!!!”
In the next, he tweeted, “To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.”
Taken together, the company said, they were “likely to inspire others to replicate the violent acts that took place on January 6, 2021, and that there are multiple indicators that they are being received and understood as encouragement to do so.”
While Republicans criticised the step taken by Twitter, Democratic leaders praised Twitter.
Sen. Joe Manchin, tweeted, “Thank you @twitter for taking this action. We must come together as a country to heal and find a common path forward.”
Sen. Mark Warner said, “An overdue step. But it’s important to remember, this is much bigger than one person. It’s about an entire ecosystem that allows misinformation and hate to spread and fester unchecked.”
Jason Miller, a senior adviser to Donald Trump said, “Disgusting. Big Tech wants to cancel all 75M @realDonaldTrump supporters.”
Nikki Haley, the former ambassador to the United Nations, tweeted, “Silencing people, not to mention the President of the U.S., is what happens in China not our country. #Unbelievable”
Trump was an early adopter of Twitter, joining the platform in 2009. He used his Twitter account as means of communication with his followers and at times spread false news and raged at people.
During the pandemic, Mr. Trump spread misinformation about the Novel Coronavirus or COVID-19.
Recently, Mr. Trump’s tweets spread hate and provoked his supporters to call for a massive riot in Washington DC, which resulted in the death of three people and left many injured.
