Twitter permanently suspends US President Donald Trump's account

Twitter permanently suspended US President Donald Trump's account on January 8, 2021, citing the risk of further incitement of violence following violence and security breach at the US Capitol building on January 6th by Trump supporters. 

Twitter said in a statement that after a close review of tweets from the account of President Trump and the context around them, specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter, it was decided to permanently suspend the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence.

Twitter further said that it had made it clear on January 6th itself that additional violations of the Twitter Rules would potentially result in this very course of action. It further said that their public interest framework exists to enable the public to hear from elected officials and world leaders directly and is built on a principle that the people have a right to hold power to account in the open.

The site further said that it will continue to be transparent around its policies and their enforcement. Twitter had earlier temporarily blocked Trump's account on the day of violence at the US Capitol and then later had unblocked it.

However, Trump had tweeted on January 8, 2021 saying that millions of those who voted for him would have a giant voice long into the future and they will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way. Further, he said in another tweet that he will not be going to the inauguration on January 20th.

Twitter said that "due to the ongoing tensions in the United States and an uptick in the global conversation in regards to the people who violently stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, these two Tweets must be read in the context of broader events in the country and how 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."

Twitter deletes tweets from official POTUS account

Twitter removed President Trump's tweets from his official @POTUS account but the account will be kept active. Twitter will though be monitoring the account closely. 

Following the permanent suspension of his Twitter account, Trump posted a message on the official government Twitter account @POTUS (President of the United States), blasting the social media platform for banning @realdonaldtrump and vowing, "We will not be silenced!"

In another tweet, Trump lashed out at Twitter alleging that it has done further on banning free speech and also alleged that the Twitter employees had coordinated with the democrats in "removing" his account. The outgoing President further tweeted saying that he had predicted that this would happen, adding that he would have a big announcement very soon as they look out at the "possibility of building out our platform".

Within minutes of posting, the tweets were removed by Twitter.

Background

It was chaos and violence all over at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 when supporters of President Trump stormed into the US Capitol building, the same day as the counting of electoral college votes was going on to confirm President-elect Joe Biden's victory in the US Elections 2020.

The US Capitol was besieged by a pro-Trump mob who not only resorted to violence and destruction but also broke into offices of senior lawmakers including Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the US House of Representatives. The lawmakers who were present in the building at that time had to be evacuated to the basement to take cover and Vice President Mike Pence who was overseeing the counting also had to be evacuated to safety. The violence forced the security forces to enforce a lockdown on the Capitol building

The violence came hours after Trump allegedly encouraged his supporters to fight against the election results as Congress was certifying Biden's victory in the November vote. Twitter initially blocked Trump's account from posting for around 12 hours after the protests broke out in Washington. Other social media platforms including Facebook and Instagram suspended his account indefinitely.

Twitter unlocked the President's account on January 7th when the President posted a video acknowledging that Joe Biden would be the next US president. However, after proper review, the platform suspended his account permanently. 

Twitter has also permanently suspended Trump's campaign account @Team Trump for violating its rules. Twitter had been Trump's most preferred method of communication for the past four years. He had around 88 million Twitter followers.