In a move that brings to mind the phrases “too little, too late” but also “better than nothing”, Twitter has finally stepped up and permanently suspended Donald Trump‘s account.
Earlier this week, Twitter suspended Trump’s account for 12 hours for “repeated and severe violations” of its civic integrity rules, threatening a permanent suspension to follow.
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.https://t.co/CBpE1I6j8Y
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) January 8, 2021
This morning, the outgoing president’s account shows up as blank, with a notification saying that it has been suspended. The Twitter Safety account provided greater context, saying:
“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.”
They added:
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 and cannot use Twitter to incite violence. We will continue to be transparent around our policies and their enforcement.
Since his loss to Joe Biden in November, Twitter has flagged multiple of Trump’s Tweets for containing disputed or inaccurate claims about the integrity of the US election.
Earlier this week, after he urged supporters to march on the US capitol, the platform removed several of his Tweets “as a result of the unprecedented and ongoing violent situation in Washington, D.C.”
VP Mike Pence has been urged to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office, and Democrats have also flagged plans to impeach him a second time.
At least he won’t be able to vent about this stuff on Twitter anymore. Lol, bye.
