Donald Trump has been permanently banned from Twitter, the social media giant has announced.Twitter said it had taken the drastic action because of the “risk of further incitement of violence” if it let the outgoing president continue to use their platform.
The move came after a review of the outgoing president’s activity in the wake of his supporters rioting at the Capitol Building earlier this week.
“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’s Twitter Safety account tweeted.
Mr Trump was only allowed back on Twitter on Thursday after his account was suspended for 12 hours and the company had warned him about his future conduct.
“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,” added Twitter.
“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. ”
Trump posed a video on Twitter as his supporters remained inside the Capitol asking them to “go home.”
“We love you. You’re very special. Go home,” he said.
Mr Trump has been widely blamed for inciting his supporters to march on the Capitol to protest the certification of Joe Biden’s election.
He has been accused of using social media to spread false claims and conspiracy theories about his defeat to Mr Biden and to deny the president-elect’s victory.
Facebook previously announced that Mr Trump’s account on their platform was suspended “indefinitely.”
The company had initially said Mr Trump would be banned for 24-hours before Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post on Thursday that the account would be locked for the remainder of his presidency.
“We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great,” he wrote.
Independent