Twitter Permanently Suspends Donald Trump's Account

January 8th, 2021 - 6:54 PM EST by Adam Downer

39 comments | Contact Newsroom

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With twelve days left until the end of the Donald Trump presidency, Twitter has permanently suspended his account. Twitter cited "risk of further incitement of violence" as the reason.


The unprecedented move comes days after the storming of the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters. Trump had given a fiery speech that appeared to egg on his supporters hours prior to the catastrophe. While his supporters swarmed the building, he used his Twitter account to give a half-hearted condemnation of the riot, telling his supporters "We love you, you're very special" while urging them to go home.

Twitter suspended Trump's account for twelve hours after the incident while Facebook, YouTube and Twitch suspended his accounts indefinitely. In a blog post further explaining their decision, Twitter cited two tweets Trump made since coming back from his suspension that they believed posed risk of further violence. The tweets read:

“The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!”

And:

“To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.”

According to Twitter, these tweets, "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."

"After assessing the language in these Tweets against our Glorification of Violence policy," wrote Twitter, "we have determined that these Tweets are in violation of the Glorification of Violence Policy and the user @realDonaldTrump should be immediately permanently suspended from the service."

Twitter is arguing that Trump's tweets could be received by his supporters that his election loss is not legitimate and that his announcement he will not attend the inauguration may be a signal to his supporters that the inauguration is a "safe" target for an attack, as he will not be there.

The move stunned Twitter users, many of whom had been clamoring for such action throughout his Presidency, though many felt it too little too late.


Others fired off jokes "commemorating" the loss of Trump's Twitter account.


Trump had 88 million followers when Twitter suspended his account.


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wisehowl_the_2nd
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wisehowl_the_2nd

On the one hand I'm worried about the public's increasing acceptance of censoring discordant opinions on social media, thus enabling corporations to have more control on the direction of conversations. But on the other hand the man has increasingly drifted away from represented what I wanted and has only been a divisive force on domestic issues. Twitter's assessment is dicey but we've had political violence arise from less.

For now I'll just enjoy knowing there won't be another Trump twitter meme for a looooong time.

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