Twitter has banned the account of US President Trump, @realDonaldTrump a permaban given. Attempts by the president to get around that ban result in tweets deleted by Twitter and further bans, such as on @TeamTrump, the campaign account.
The president also began using the official Twitter-reserved @ POTUS account, something he normally never did. In those posts he attacked Twitter and spoke of the idea of setting up his own platform. The Tweets there have been removed by Twitter.
In addition, the digital director of Trump’s election campaign joined the fray: he changed his profile picture and name to that of Donald Trump and sent his login details to the president by text message. His account has now also been suspended.
Twitter says it has “thoroughly reviewed” the president’s tweets and subsequently deployed the permaban because of “the risk of further incitement to violence.” The tightened enforcement on the president’s account is prompted by the storming of the Capitol by pro-Trump protesters on Jan. 6. Twitter explains in a blog post which tweets are involved and what the precise motivations were .
However, it does not appear to be merely an imitation of the policy; 300 Twitter workers signed a petition in the hours before the decision was taken to permanently remove Donald Trump from the platform.
On the Facebook side, action had already been taken: Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts are being blocked indefinitely , Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg reports . Trump won’t be able to use his accounts for at least the next two weeks, until after his handover of power to Biden. Alphabet’s new union is also calling for a Trump ban from YouTube.