Twitter warns it might be forced to permanently suspend Donald Trump’s account

by Enock Bett · Published January 7, 2021 · Updated January 7, 2021

Twitter has warned that it might be forced to take action on the United States President, Donald Trump’s Twitter account for continuously violating the platform’s policies. Twitter said; “As a result of the unprecedented and ongoing violent situation in Washington, D.C., we have required the removal of three @realDonaldTrump Tweets that were posted earlier today for repeated and severe violations of our Civic Integrity policy.”

Twitter asked Donald Trump to remove his three tweets seemingly glorifying violence at the Capitol when his supporters who had initially gathered at the National Mall earlier on Wednesday violently stormed the U.S. Capitol building to protest the November election results. The protesters breached the building’s barricades, smashed windows, and scaled balconies in an ugly confrontation with the law enforcement officers prompting the evacuation of Vice President Mike Pence and the Senate chamber who had gathered to certify the November 2020 elections results.

Twitter said it had temporarily locked Trump’s Twitter account for 12 hours warning that if he did not remove the tweets, the account will stay locked. The platform further clarified that it might be forced permanently suspend the President if he will continue to violate Twitter Rules, including their Civic Integrity or Violent Threats policies which demand that users should not use Twitter to manipulate or interfere in elections or other civic processes by posting or sharing content that may suppress participation or mislead people about when, where, or how to participate in a civic process. Twitter said it may label and reduce the visibility of these Tweets containing false or misleading information about civic processes.

“When it comes to the actions of world leaders on Twitter, we recognize that this is largely new ground and unprecedented. We understand the desire for our decisions to be “yes/no” binaries, but it’s not that simple. The actions we take and policies we develop will set precedent around online speech and we owe it to the people we serve to be deliberate and considered in what we do,” read a policy on the platform’s web.

Facebook and Instagram have also banned Donald Trump from posting on his accounts for 24 hours saying; “We’ve assessed two policy violations against President Trump’s Page which will result in a 24-hour feature block, meaning he will lose the ability to post on the platform during that time.”