It finally happened. Twitter suspended the account of Donald Trump.
Permanently.
"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," announced Twitter late Friday.
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The permanent ban follows the storming of the U.S. Capitol building by pro-Trump extremists, an action that led to five deaths.
As the siege was ongoing and in its immediate aftermath, Twitter took the action of hiding three Trump tweets and demanding their removal.
Trump eventually complied — leading to the removal of a temporary lock on his account. Then he sent two tweets that triggered Twitter to take permanent action.
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Twitter also moved to ban prominent accounts associated with QAnon late Friday, including the account of Michael Flynn.
In a lengthy blog post, Twitter expounded upon a decision that is sure to make massive waves across the political spectrum. The company laid out how, in its eyes, Trump went too far — citing two specific tweets in the process.
The tweets in question are both from Friday, and claimed Trump's followers will "will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way" and that Trump intends to skip the inauguration of President-elect Biden.
"[These] two Tweets must be read in the context of broader 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 pattern of behavior from this account in recent weeks," reads the blog post. "After assessing the language in these Tweets against our Glorification of Violence policy, we have determined that these Tweets are in violation of the Glorification of Violence Policy and the user @realDonaldTrump should be immediately permanently suspended from the service."
We reached out to Twitter to ask what, if anything, it will do if Trump simply starts tweeting from the @POTUS account. According to Twitter, Trump cannot evade Friday's ban by simply switching to another account. If Trump tries to use other accounts, they will be subject to suspension as well. However, official government accounts like @POTUS and @WhiteHouse will not be suspended unless absolutely necessary to avoid real-world harm.
Notably, after the initial publication of this story, Trump tried that very thing. He posted several tweets via the @POTUS account, but they were quickly taken down.
"We will not be SILENCED!" read one the now-deleted tweets. "STAY TUNED!"
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In an emailed statement, a Twitter spokesperson reiterated that this was violation of the company's rules.
"We have taken steps to enforce this with regard to recent Tweets from the @POTUS account," explained the spokesperson. "For government accounts, such as @POTUS and @WhiteHouse, we will not suspend those accounts permanently but will take action to limit their use."
We also asked Twitter for any additional context around the ban, however a spokesperson simply pointed us back toward the above Twitter thread from @TwitterSafety.
Twitter is not the only social media platform that took action against Trump this week. The president is banned from Facebook and Instagram until at least Jan. 20.
UPDATE: Jan. 8, 2021, 4:41 p.m. PST: This story has been updated to include Twitter's policy regarding Trump's potential use of other Twitter accounts, including the @POTUS account.
UPDATE: Jan. 8, 2021, 5:51 p.m. PST: This story was updated to include Trump's tweets from the @POTUS account, and those tweets' subsequent removal.
UPDATE: Jan. 8, 2021, 6:04 p.m. PST: This story was updated to include a statement from Twitter about the @POTUS account.
Topics X/Twitter Donald Trump
