Twitter Inc. permanently banned U.S. President Donald Trump’s personal account for breaking its rules against glorifying violence, marking the most high-profile punishment the company has ever imposed and the end of Trump’s relationship with his favorite social media megaphone.
“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,”
the company wrote in a blog post on Friday.
San Francisco-based Twitter announced the ban two days after Trump was initially suspended for posting a series of tweets that misled users about the presidential election results, and appeared to encourage violent rioters who had mobbed the U.S. Capitol. One included a video message of Trump expressing love for the insurgents and calling the election “fraudulent.”
Twitter had demanded that Trump delete three offending tweets, and warned at the time that he could be permanently blocked for subsequent rules violations. His account, which had more than 88 million followers, was restored Thursday. Trump’s posts on Friday included a tweet saying he wouldn’t attend President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration — and Twitter determined the tweets violated the company’s policies when “read in the context of broader events in the country.”
“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!!!”
Trump posted earlier Friday.
The company said this was an indication that the president planned to continue supporting and empowering those who believe he won the November election. “Plans for future armed protests have already begun proliferating on and off-Twitter, including a proposed secondary attack on the U.S. Capitol and state capitol buildings on January 17, 2021,” Twitter wrote.
Twitter said it reviewed the tweets given “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.”
Trump’s suspension ends what has been the most controversial relationship Twitter has ever had with one of its users. Trump often used his account to verbally attack opponents and spread misinformation in ways that broke the social network’s rules. In some cases, Twitter created new rules specifically to accommodate the president’s reckless tweeting, including a special policy for world leaders, which put their rule-breaking tweets behind a filter instead of removing them entirely. The company had begun to take a tougher stance on Trump’s tweets in recent months, especially on posts about Black Lives Matter protests and unsubstantiated claims of election fraud.
