After a mob of pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., Twitter temporarily banned Trump’s account for 12 hours for encouraging the behaviour, inciting violence and continuing to spread baseless election fraud claims. It said that further breaches of the company’s terms could result in suspension. More of the president’s tweet afterwards violated these policies and his @realdonaldtrump account has been deactivated, the reasons explained in a Twitter blog post.
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The account was created in 2009 and the outgoing president had tweeted more than 56,000 times and he amassed more than 88 million followers in that time.
Two specific tweets from Friday morning resulted in the ban, with Twitter saying that they “must be read in the context of broader events in the country and 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…As such, our determination is that the two Tweets above are likely to inspire others to replicate the violent acts that took place on January 6, 2021, and that there are multiple indicators that they are being received and understood as encouragement to do so.”
Several social media platforms have also removed, suspended, or banned Trump’s accounts or pro-Trump accounts spreading the same conspiracy theories regarding the November 3rd election. This includes Reddit, Discord, Facebook, and many others. Trump tried to continue his tweeting activity through the @POTUS account, but it was already
The Facebook account is of specific interest to many – Mark Zuckerberg has said that the account would remain suspended until at least January 20th, Joe Biden’s inauguration day.
According to Twitter, there were also plans circulating on social media platforms for future violence. “Plans for future armed protests have already begun proliferating on and off-Twitter, including a proposed secondary attack on the US Capitol and state capitol buildings on January 17, 2021.”
