President Donald Trump is once again at the center of a storm of controversy. On January 6, a mob of the President’s supporters stormed the Capitol building in Washington, DC, while Congress was in the midst of certifying the electoral college votes for the 2020 presidential election. Trump has been accused of instigating the incident, as he had encouraged thousands of spectators to “go to the Capitol” at a rally earlier that afternoon.
As the situation at the Capitol became increasingly violent, the President made a series of tweets on Twitter and posted a video. While he encouraged the protestors to go home, he simultaneously seemed to support their behavior, telling them they were “very special” and that he loved them. Twitter flagged the tweets and suspended Trump’s account for 12 hours, threatening a permanent ban if the posts were not deleted.
When Trump’s 12-hour Twitter suspension ended on Thursday, the President posted what seemed to be a conciliatory video, calling for peace and condemning the destructive actions of his supporters at the Capitol building. However, as calls increased for his removal from the presidency either through impeachment or via the 25th Amendment, Trump’s tweets once again became potentially inflammatory. In response, Twitter permanently suspended President Trump’s account.
“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,” the company said. Twitter has been President Trump’s social media platform of choice throughout his presidency, and his account was followed by nearly 89 million people. Yet with his primary means of communicating to his supporters now removed, Trump will not be able to simply change platforms.
On Wednesday, January 6, Facebook and Instagram also banned the President’s accounts indefinitely and “for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete.” Amazon’s livestreaming platform Twitch disabled President Trump’s account that same day as well, stating that the ban was a necessary step to protect the community and prevent the President from inciting further violence.
Snapchat has likewise locked the President’s account on that platform, after having already stopped promoting his posts in June 2020 due to incendiary comments he made during protests against police brutality. Reddit has banned the r/donaldtrump Subreddit for violating the company’s rules against inciting violence, also in response to the storming of the Capitol building on Wednesday.
Twitter’s move to halt behavior that could lead to violence did not stop at banning the President’s account, either. The Twitter accounts of former Trump National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and former Trump campaign attorney Sidney Powell were also suspended on January 8 for sharing posts about QAnon conspiracy theories. "We've been clear that we will take strong enforcement action on behavior that has the potential to lead to offline harm," Twitter said in a statement to CBS News.
Source: CBS News, Reuters, Business Insider