US President Donald Trump is no longer welcome on Twitter. Although the platform previously enacted a temporary suspension on his account, Twitter has now decided to permanently ban Trump’s account for violating its Glorification of Violence policy.
Twitter Erases All Traces of Trump’s Presence
After pro-Trump supporters stormed Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021, Trump’s Tweets were quickly labeled, and then removed from Twitter altogether “due to a risk of violence.”
Shortly thereafter, Trump’s account was suspended for 12 hours. Twitter cited that Trump made “repeated and severe violations” to the platform’s Civic Integrity policy.
After that time period passed, Trump’s Twitter account was unlocked, albeit for a very brief period of time. Trump sent out a small number of Tweets to his supporters during this window.
Only hours later, Twitter banned Trump completely. If you navigate to the @realDonaldTrump Twitter account, all you’ll see is a blank page that reads: “Account suspended. Twitter suspends accounts which violate the Twitter rules.”
The platform explained its reasoning behind the ban in a post on the Twitter Blog, noting that it made its decision “after close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account.” Twitter noted that it “permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence.”
In the post, Twitter cited the two Tweets that Trump sent out after his account was unlocked. The Tweets mentioned that Trump won’t be attending President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, and also noted that his supporters won’t be “disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form.”
Twitter states that these Tweets violate its Glorification of Violence policy. It went into more specific detail on how his Tweets broke the rules, stating:
These two 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.
As a result of this, Twitter determined that President Trump “should be immediately permanently suspended from the service.”
The End of Trump on Twitter Is Here
The end of Trump’s Twitter presence has come sooner than we thought. It seemed more likely that Twitter would ban Trump after Biden assumes office, as Trump would no longer have world leader status on Twitter.
Now that Twitter has permanently removed Trump from the platform, it doesn’t seem too wild to predict that other social platforms will do the same. Facebook and Instagram have already banned Trump indefinitely, which means a permanent suspension could be possible in the future.