Trump’s accounts remain blocked on Facebook and Instagram for at least two weeks. (Archive)
San Francisco:
Twitter said Friday that it permanently suspended President Donald Trump’s account, citing the risk of further violence following the assault on the United States Capitol by his supporters.
“After a detailed review of recent tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account”, Twitter said in a blog post explaining his decision, “we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement to violence.”
Twitter, Trump’s favorite megaphone, blocked him for 12 hours after the deadly attack on the US Capitol on Wednesday and threatened a permanent suspension if he continued to break its rules.
Trump returned to Twitter on Thursday night, posting a video message that appeared intended to defuse tensions after the chaos caused by his supporters.
He acknowledged that his presidency was ending and promised a smooth transition to Joe Biden, though he stopped short of congratulating or even saying the name of his successor.
Twitter said at the time that it was continuing to monitor Trump’s activity on social media to determine if further action was needed.
The decision to suspend Trump’s account came after a couple of tweets on Friday, according to the one-to-many messaging platform.
In one of the tweets, Trump promised that none of his supporters would be “disrespected” and in another he said he would not attend Biden’s January 20 inauguration, as is customary.
These two tweets should be read in the context of larger 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 behavior pattern of this account. in recent weeks, “Twitter said.
The company determined that the tweets violated its “Glorification of Violence Policy” and that “user @realDonaldTrump should be permanently suspended from service immediately.”
Twitter confirmed that several hundred employees signed a letter to Chief Executive Jack Dorsey saying they were disturbed by the “insurrection” carried out by Trump supporters who had been summoned by the president.
Employees asked Twitter to evaluate the role its platform played in Wednesday’s events.
“Twitter fosters an open dialogue between our leaders and employees, and we welcome our employees to express their thoughts and concerns in any way they see fit,” a company spokesperson said of the letter.
(With the exception of the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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