- Twitter banned Trump on Friday citing a ‘risk of further incitement of violence’
- ‘Twitter has gone further and further in banning free speech’, Trump posted from his official @POTUS account
After social media platform Twitter banned him on Friday citing a ‘risk of further incitement of violence’, US President Donald Trump said he will look at building his own platform. The move by the California-based social media platform came two days after hundreds of his supporters had stormed the United States Capitol building and clashed with police, resulting in five deaths. Four civilians and a police officer died.
“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,” Twitter said in a statement on Friday. At the time of permanent suspension, Trump had 88.7 million followers and followed 51 people.
Trump then posted from his official @POTUS account to accuse Twitter of conspiring with his political enemies “to silence me”. “Twitter has gone further and further in banning free speech, and 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,” he said in a series of tweets from the @POTUS account.
“Twitter may be a private company, but without the government’s gift of Section 230, they would not exist for long. I predicted this would happen. We have been negotiating with various other sites and we have a big announce soon, while we also look at the possibilities of building out own platform in the near future. We will not be SILENCE!,” Trump added.
“Twitter is not about FREE SPEECH. They are all about promoting a Radical Left platform where some of the most vicious people in the world are allowed to speak freely. “STAY TUNED!”‘ he said
The posts were later deleted by Twitter.
“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,” Twitter said after banning Trump. “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,” it added.
“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,” it said.
Facebook also already suspended his account on Facebook and Instagram till inauguration of US President. Early this week, You Tube removed a number of his videos from the rally he addressed to his supporters.
