Twitter permanently suspends Trump’s account

US President Donald Trump has been permanently suspended from Twitter “due to the risk of further incitement to violence,” the company says.

Twitter said the decision was made “after a close review of recent tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account.”

It comes amid a Big Tech purge of online platforms used by Trump and his followers.

Some lawmakers and celebrities have been calling for years on Twitter to ban Trump altogether.

On Thursday, former first lady Michelle Obama tweeted that the Silicon Valley giants should stop allowing Trump’s “monstrous behavior” and permanently oust him.

In reaction to the president’s ban, Trump 2020 campaign adviser Jason Miller tweeted: “Disgusting … if you don’t think they’ll come after you, you’re wrong.”

Trump was unable to access his account for 12 hours Wednesday after calling people who stormed the US Capitol “patriots.”

Hundreds of his supporters entered the Capitol building as the United States Congress tried to certify Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election. The resulting violence resulted in the death of four civilians and a police officer.

Twitter then warned that it would ban Trump “permanently” if he violated the platform’s rules again.

After being allowed to return to Twitter, Trump posted two tweets on Friday that the company cited as final straws.

In one, he wrote: “The 75,000,000 great American patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE in the future. They will not be disrespected or wronged in any way, shape or form! to form!!!”

Twitter said this tweet “is interpreted as one more indication that President Trump does not plan to facilitate an ‘orderly transition.”

In the next one, the president tweeted: “To everyone who has asked, I will not be going to the inauguration on January 20.”

Twitter said this “was received by several of his supporters as further confirmation that the election was not legitimate.”

Twitter said these two tweets “violate the Glorification of Violence Policy.”

After Twitter permanently suspended his @realDonaldTrump account, Trump tweeted from the US President’s official @Potus account, suggesting that he would “look into the possibilities of building our own platform in the future” and criticized Twitter.

But the tweets were removed from the platform as soon as they were posted.

Earlier on Friday, the company permanently banned two Trump loyalists: former national security adviser Michael Flynn and attorney Sidney Powell.

Later that day, Google suspended Parler, a Twitter rival that calls itself “free speech” and is increasingly popular with Trump supporters, from its online store.

“We are aware of the continued posting on the Parler app that seeks to incite ongoing violence in the United States,” Google said.

On Thursday, Facebook said it had suspended Trump “indefinitely.” Popular gaming platform Twitch also placed an indefinite ban on the outgoing president’s channel, which he has used for rally broadcasts. Snapchat too.

This week, e-commerce company Shopify closed two online Trump souvenir stores. On Friday, Reddit banned its “donaldtrump” forum for the president’s supporters.

Trump used Twitter to insult adversaries, cheer on allies, firefighters, deny “fake news” and voice complaints, often using all capital letters and exclamation points to underline his point.

Although critics said the posts were a torrent of misinformation, the outlet allowed him to bypass mainstream media and instantly connect with nearly 89 million followers.

His tweets were also notorious for occasional misspellings and sometimes left followers guessing with apparent typographical errors, such as when he posted “Despite constant negative press feedback.”

The Justice Department said in 2017 that Trump’s tweets were “official statements by the President of the United States.”

Donald Trump loves being on Twitter, it is his primary way of spreading his message.

You like the short format, you like your ability to reach tens of millions of people with the click of a button, without going through the media.

The fact that Twitter’s decision was made 48 hours after Wednesday’s Capitol riots shows that this was not an easy decision for the social media giant.

The platform has benefited greatly from Trump’s participation, it has been the place to go to hear the latest from the most powerful man in the world.

But Twitter has acted for a number of reasons. He says it is because of the probability that it will incite violence in the future.

But it’s also because their power is slipping away very quickly. Now he is being treated as a common member of the public.

And as a mere mortal, repeatedly spreading disinformation, fake news, and incitement to violence will kick you out of major social media platforms.

For those who say that this violates the freedom of speech enshrined in the First Amendment of the United States Constitution? Big Tech’s argument is that they are private companies, not state actors. Therefore, they are free to moderate their platforms as they see fit.

The big question now is, can Trumpism survive without the backing of the mainstream media? Or will it just slide into the shadows of the internet?

Twitter wrote in a blog post on Friday: “In the context of this week’s horrific events, we made it clear Wednesday that additional violations of the Twitter Rules could result in this same course of action.

“Our public interest framework exists to allow the public to listen directly to elected officials and world leaders. It is based on the principle that people have the right to be empowered to be openly accountable.”

He added: “However, we made it clear years ago that these accounts are not above our rules and cannot use Twitter to incite violence. We will continue to be transparent about our policies and their enforcement.”

About 350 Twitter employees had signed a letter this week to the company’s chief executive, Jack Dorsey, asking him to ban the president in the wake of the Capitol riots.

The letter read: “Despite our efforts to serve the public conversation, as Trump’s megaphone, we helped fuel the deadly events of January 6.”

Twitter first took action against Trump in May 2020 by adding fact checks to the tweets he sent alleging that the votes by mail were fraudulent.

Later that week, he put up a warning label when the president threatened to send in the military to quell the Black Lives Matter protests, adding that “when the looting begins, the shooting begins.”

Twitter used these fact-checks and warning labels increasingly throughout the year for Trump’s tweets about the coronavirus and the presidential election.