OAKLAND, Calif. – Twitter said on Friday it had permanently suspended President Trump from his service “due to the risk of further incitement to violence”, effectively cutting him off from his favorite megaphone to reach the public and culminating in a series of actions with popular sites to limit your online reach.
Twitter said in a blog post that Mr. Trump’s personal @realDonaldTrump account, which has more than 88 million followers, would be suspended immediately. The company said that two tweets that Trump posted on Friday – one calling his supporters “patriots” and the other saying he would not be in office on January 20 – violated his rules of glorifying violence.
The tweets “were very likely to encourage and inspire people to replicate the criminal acts that occurred on the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021,” said Twitter, referring to the invasion of the Capitol by a crowd of Trump loyalists. .
Within minutes, Trump’s Twitter account was no longer visible or accessible.
The move was an energetic rejection by Trump’s Twitter, which used the platform to build its base and spread its messages, which were often full of falsehoods and threats. Mr. Trump regularly tweets dozens of times a day, sending a series of messages early in the morning or late at night. In his posts, he gave his live reactions to television news programs, encouraged supporters and attacked his perceived enemies.
“The permanent suspension of Trump’s Twitter account is long overdue,” said Shannon McGregor, senior researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “This is the main platform for Trump. The impossibility of tweeting prevents direct access to the press – and, by extension, to the public. “
A day earlier, Facebook had barred Trump for the rest of his term, and other digital platforms – including Snapchat, YouTube, Twitch and Reddit – also recently limited Trump in their services.
The actions were a clear illustration of the power of social media companies and how they could act almost unilaterally when they chose. For years, Twitter, Facebook and other platforms have positioned themselves as defenders of freedom of expression and said that posts from world leaders like Trump should be allowed because they were noteworthy. The companies refused to touch his account, even after they were attacked for allowing the flow of incorrect and false information.
Donald Trump Jr., Trump’s son, called Twitter’s action “absolute insanity” and said tech companies were overreacting. “We are living in the year of Orwell in 1984,” he tweeted.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In the past, Trump has repeatedly told allies that they raised the possibility that social media companies would stop him: “They will never ban me.”
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The reaction against Trump online began on Wednesday after his supporters, encouraged by the president, stormed the Capitol building. As a consequence, Twitter temporarily blocked Trump’s account, followed by Facebook. At the time, Twitter said the risks of keeping its comments live on its website had become very high.
The company said Trump could return to its platform if he deleted several tweets that contained falsehoods about the election or calls for violence, which violated its policies. One of the tweets was a video that Mr. Trump posted after the police pushed the crowd back, where he said to his supporters: “We love you. You are very special. “
After Trump removed these posts, he was reinstated to the site on Thursday. On Thursday night, he issued a conciliatory message, saying that he was outraged by the violence and that it would facilitate a peaceful transition of power.
But Trump quickly returned to tweeting fiery on Friday, calling his supporters “American Patriots”, who would have had a “GIANT VOICE for a long time”. He also said he would not attend the opening on January 20.
Twitter said these messages appear to tolerate violence on Wednesday and are likely to incite more violence. He added that the one about the inauguration offered the date as a target for attack because Mr. Trump would not be present.
Earlier on Friday, Twitter officials met by videoconference to discuss the decision not to stop Trump immediately, as Facebook had done, according to two people familiar with the meeting. Many employees were upset that Twitter did not permanently suspend Trump, they said.
Emerson Brooking, a senior member of the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Laboratory, said that taking Trump’s Twitter account was now, in a way, too late because Trump had spread many conspiracy theories on the platform in recent years.
“Removing Trump from Twitter does not correct our policy or bring millions of Americans back to reality,” said Brooking. “But it makes it significantly more difficult for disinformation to enter the mainstream. And it makes it harder for Trump to reach his followers. “
The suspension of Twitter can create headaches for the Trump administration when it comes to complying with the 1978 Presidential Records Act, which requires the preservation of presidential materials and communications. That includes tweets – which is why, for example, each tweet that President Barack Obama and his team posted to the @POTUS account was permanently filed under a new account, @ POTUS44, after Trump took over.
Whether the requirement applies to tweets sent from Trump’s personal account as well as from the president’s official account has been a matter of debate, but legal experts generally agree that it should be applied.
Maggie Astor and Maggie Haberman contributed reporting.