Twitter permanently banned Donald Trump’s social media account last Friday (8). Those who access the current US president’s page will not even find his profile picture.
“After a detailed analysis of recent account messages [de Trump] and the context around them, we are permanently suspending the profile due to the risk of further incitement to violence, ”the company said.
Twitter Safety, which is responsible for the security of the platform, said the social network structure exists to allow the public to listen directly to world leaders, but that “for years we have made it clear that these accounts do not are not above our “they can use Twitter to incite violence.”
After the invasion of the US Congress on Wednesday (6), during the joint session between deputies and senators to certify Biden’s victory, the president’s account was blocked for 12 hours.
After this period, Trump returned to the social network Thursday evening (7) and posted a video in which he condemned the violence of the vandals, calling the attack heinous. According to the Washington Post, hundreds of Twitter employees in a letter demanded that business leaders permanently suspend the president’s profile – the publication had access to the content of the request.
In the letter to company president Jack Dorsey and his key executives, around 350 platform employees also called for an investigation into corporate decisions Twitter made in recent years that helped foster the invasion of the US Congress.
“Despite our efforts to serve the public debate, we helped fuel the deadly events of January 6,” officials wrote. “We have called for an investigation into how our public policy decisions have led to the spread of serious undemocratic threats. We must learn from our mistakes to avoid causing future damage. “
In a statement sent to the newspaper, Twitter spokesperson Brandon Borrman said the company encourages open dialogue between employees and company executives.
After the ban, Trump attempted to post to the @POTUS account (acronym for US president), but the social network deleted the posts. In the posts, he said Twitter “has gone further and further in banning free speech” and criticized section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which offers businesses the immunity against content served by users and protects them from legal action.
This rule gives businesses the power to moderate and states that they are not responsible for the comments people post on their platforms.
Finally, he mentioned the possibility of creating his own Internet platform.
Also on Thursday, Twitter blocked accounts “dedicated to sharing QAnon content,” a reference to the conspiracy theory that Trump is fighting a cult of Satan-worshiping pedophiles who control the world. The move is classified by the FBI as a potential threat from domestic terrorism.
Among the suspended profiles are those of Michael Flynn, former national security adviser to the Republican administration, and Sidney Powell, former lawyer for the president.
In another similar move, Google on Thursday announced that the social network app Talk has been suspended from its store – the least restrictive platform has been a haven for extremists after Facebook blocked conspiracy theories Last year.
“Our policies require applications […] remove offensive content, such as messages inciting violence. We have reminded Parler of this policy in recent months. In light of the continuing and urgent threat to public safety, we are suspending the app on the Play Store until the issue is resolved, ”the statement from Google said.
Previously, Apple threatened to remove Parler from its App Store unless the company changes its content moderation policies.
Trump had previously been blocked by Facebook and Instagram at least until Democrat Joe Biden’s inauguration, scheduled for January 20. “We believe that the risks of allowing the president to continue to use our services during this period are too great,” said Mark Zuckerberg, president of Facebook, in a statement published on the platform itself.
The social game streaming network Twitch, acquired by Amazon in 2014, also announced the ban on the president’s account at least until the end of his term.
“Given the current extraordinary circumstances and the President’s inflammatory rhetoric, we believe this is a necessary step to protect our community and prevent Twitch from being used as a platform to incite further violence,” said said a representative of the company.
Alleging the risk of violence, Facebook had already withdrawn Wednesday a video of the Republican in which he asked the demonstrators to return home, but had falsely reaffirmed that the election was rigged.
The same content also received alerts before being deleted by Twitter, which also excluded a post in which Trump said Vice President Mike Pence “did not have the courage to do what should have been done.” to protect the United States and its Constitution.
Trump has repeatedly pressured his deputy to reject the electoral college votes, although Pence has no legal authority to unilaterally overrule the results that confirmed Biden’s victory. We are a family business.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Thursday criticized Trump’s temporary blocking of social media. “You can see: Yesterday in the United States they blocked Trump on social media. An elected president, still president, blocked his media,” he said.
With a similar speech, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, President of Mexico, also took a stand against what he called social media “censorship”, without however mentioning Trump.