Twitter permanently bans Donald Trump

OHMYGOSSIP – Twitter has permanently suspended President Donald Trump’s account (realdonaldtrump), the company announced Friday, a striking move that comes as the social media network faced growing pressure to remove him following the deadly Capitol riots earlier this week.

Key Facts

Twitter said it decided to ban the president “due to the risk of further incitement of violence” after a review of his recent tweets.

Though Twitter has long been criticized for not doing enough to stem the spread of misinformation and hate speech on Trump’s account, the last few days have ratcheted up pressure from prominent figures in tech, Democrats, as well as Twitter’s own employees, for a permanent ban.

Up until this point, Twitter had only locked Trump’s account for 12 hours over tweets where he said he “loved” the rioters and explained the insurrection as “things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away.”

After the suspension expired, Trump used Twitter to call his supporters “American Patriots,” say the MAGA movement will have a “GIANT VOICE long into the future” and indicate he would skip Joe Biden’s inauguration.

Twitter said those tweets prompted the ban because they are being interpreted by his supporters as a veiled plan to “continue to support, empower, and shield those who believe he won the election,” especially considering “plans for future armed protests have already begun proliferating on and off-Twitter.”

Crucial Quote

“President Trump’s statement that he will not be attending the Inauguration is being received by a number of his supporters as further confirmation that the election was not legitimate and is seen as him disavowing his previous claim made via two Tweets  by his Deputy Chief of Staff, Dan Scavino, that there would be an ‘orderly transition’ on January 20th,” Twitter said in its assessment of his final tweets.

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