Twitter has finally banned Trump.
On Friday, Twitter announced that they decided to permanently suspend the president's personal account after reviewing recent posts they believed could lead to the "further incitement of violence." This latest move comes after they locked his account on Wednesday over several tweets that were "severe violations of our Civic Integrity Policy," including one that called the Capitol Hill rioters "very special" and repeated baseless claims that the election had been "stolen."
"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," the company wrote in a blog post that also provided an analysis of the offending tweets that led to the ban.
"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," Twitter continued. "However, we made it clear going back years that these accounts are not above our rules entirely and cannot use Twitter to incite violence, among other things. We will continue to be transparent around our policies and their enforcement."
Twitter's decision does not affect institutional accounts like @POTUS and @WhiteHouse, as Trump primarily used his own account to incite his supporters. Their decision also follows Facebook's indefinite suspension, which they said would be in effect until "at least" the end of his term on January 20.
See Twitter's full post about the ban, here.
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. https://t.co/NrANZJcAfo
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) January 8, 2021
However, we made it clear going back years that these accounts are not above our rules and cannot use Twitter to incite violence. We will continue to be transparent around our policies and their enforcement.
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) January 8, 2021
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