Donald Trump has Twitter account permanently shut down... and is then blocked from using Presidential account as well

Jason Collie9 January 2021

Donald Trump has been permanently suspended from Twitter and had access to the official President’s account blocked after the social media firm ruled there was a “risk of further incitement of violence”.

Twitter moved against the outgoing US President over two tweets posted on Friday and shut down his @realDonaldTrump account, before Mr Trump then used the official @POTUS account to hit back.

The social media giant said it had deleted tweets on the @POTUS account and “taken steps” to prevent Mr Trump using it. The @TeamTrump account was also suspended after it spread a statement from the president.

In a statement on Twitter’s blog on Friday it said it had decided to take action against Mr Trump’s account – which had almost 89 million followers – after a review of two of the President’s tweets posted on Friday found they had violated its glorification of violence policy.

Pro-Trump protesters clash with police during a rally to contest the certification of the 2020 presidential election results by the US Congress at the US Capitol Building in Washington on January 6
REUTERS

The tweets were “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!!!” and “To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th”.

The firm said the refusal to attend Mr Biden’s inauguration was being received by Mr Trump’s supporters as “further confirmation that the election was not legitimate” and him disavowing his previous claim there would be an “orderly transition”.

It claimed the second tweet may also “serve as encouragement to those potentially considering violent acts that the Inauguration would be a ‘safe’ target, as he will not be attending”.

The statement said: “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 — we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence.

“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. 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.

“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.”

In response, Mr Trump then resorted to using the @POTUS account, saying he had previously warned Twitter was going “further and further in banning free speech”.

He continued: “Tonight Twitter employees have coordinated with the Democrats and the Radical Left in removing my account from their platform, to silence me – and YOU, the 75,000,000 great...patriots who voted for me.” 

The initial decision came after supporters of Mr Trump stormed the US Capitol building on Wednesday in protest at his election loss to Joe Biden, leading to violent clashes and the deaths of five people.

Pro-Trump supporters storm US Capitol

1/43

Mr Trump was accused of inciting his supporters into violence with a speech at a rally in Washington DC earlier in the day.

The president was subsequently locked out of his social media accounts temporarily, although Facebook has since extended the ban until the end of his presidency on January 20.

Mr Trump is set to leave on January 20 when Mr Biden is inaugurated and tweeted on Friday that he planned to skip Mr Biden’s inauguration, becoming the first president in more than 150 years — and just the fourth in US history — to do so.

The @TeamTrump account has also been taken down
via REUTERS

The use of the words “American Patriots” to describe some of his supporters was also being interpreted as support for those committing violent acts at the US Capitol, Twitter said.

It added: “Plans for future armed protests have already begun proliferating on and off-Twitter, including a proposed secondary attack on the US Capitol and state capitol buildings on January 17, 2021.

“As such, our determination is that the two tweets above are likely to inspire others to replicate the violent acts that took place on January 6 2021, and that there are multiple indicators that they are being received and understood as encouragement to do so.”

A spokesperson added that Twitter “have taken steps” to prevent Mr Trump tweeting from the official @POTUS account, which was established by Barack Obama and has 33.4 million followers.

The spokesperson said: “For government accounts, such as @POTUS and @WhiteHouse, we will not suspend those accounts permanently but will take action to limit their use.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in