Twitter Permanently Suspend Trump’s Account to Prevent Further Incitement of Violence
Twitter Permanently Suspend Trump’s Account to Prevent Further Incitement of Violence.
Twitter permanently suspended the U.S. President Donald Trump’s account on Friday, stating that the suspension was to prevent the risk of further incitement of violence.
In the official statement, Twitter wrote that after close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them — specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter — Twitter had permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence.
In the context of horrific events this week, Twitter made it clear on Wednesday that additional violations of the Twitter Rules would potentially result in this very course of action. Twitter’s 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, Twitter made it clear going back years that these accounts are not above its rules entirely and cannot use Twitter to incite violence, among other things. Furthermore, Twitter stated that it will continue to be transparent around its policies and their enforcement.
On January 8, 2021, President Donald J. Trump tweeted:
“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!!!”
Shortly thereafter, the President tweeted:
“To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.”
In the unprecedented event late Wednesday, pro-Trump supporters stormed the Capitol while the U.S. Congress was counting the electoral vote in which the Democrat’s Joe Biden was pointing to win the race. The raid resulted in a total of five fatalities, including Capitol’s police officer.
The tweet by Trump and the consequence of his supporters storming the sacred place of their own country led to Twitter’s conclusion to suspend Trump’s account to prevent any incitement from occurring in the future.