Twitter Permanently Suspends Trump’s Account For Fear Of Violence

Twitter has permanently suspended President Trump’s account for concerns that Trump’s tweets may cause further violence in the United States.

After the violent protests of January 6th, 2020, Twitter banned Trump’s account for 12 hours to prevent it from being used to incite violence, such as what occurred in the US Capitol building.

At the time, Twitter warned that future use of the account to issue tweets that break Twitter’s rules would lead to a permanent account suspension.

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. https://t.co/k6OkjNG3bM

— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) January 7, 2021

After President Trump tweeted the following statements, Twitter has permanently suspended Trumps account.

“The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!”

“To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.”

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Twitter states that they decided to suspend the account after evaluating the tweets and coming to the following conclusions:

• 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 (1, 2) by his Deputy Chief of Staff, Dan Scavino, that there would be an “orderly transition” on January 20th.
• The second Tweet may also serve as encouragement to those potentially considering violent acts that the Inauguration would be a “safe” target, as he will not be attending. 
• The use of the words “American Patriots” to describe some of his supporters is also being interpreted as support for those committing violent acts at the US Capitol.
• The mention of his supporters having a “GIANT VOICE long into the future” and that “They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!” is being interpreted as further indication that President Trump does not plan to facilitate an “orderly transition” and instead that he plans to continue to support, empower, and shield those who believe he won the election. 
• Plans for future armed protests have already begun proliferating on and off-Twitter, including a proposed secondary attack on the US Capitol and state capitol buildings on January 17, 2021. 

Twitter users who attempt to view Trump’s profile will be shown a message stating that the account has been suspended and will not see his historical tweets.

According to Newsweek, Fox News opinion host Sean Hannity stated that Trump joined the conservative social network, Parler.

“I saw that the president had joined it. At least there is a place, it’s like Twitter, it’s called Parler, I have an account there… good for you because the president joined, because they are censoring him and Dan Scavino and everybody else,” Hannity said in a conversation with Dan Bongino and Sarah Sanders.

The Team Trump account was later suspended as Twitter states it was being used to bypass Trump’s suspension. Twitter also suspended accounts belonging to President Trump supporters Michael Flynn and Sidney Powell for spreading QAnon conspiracy theories.

Soon after Twitter suspended the President’s account, Google removed the Parler from the Play Store for not properly moderating posts that contain threats of violence.

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Update 1/8/21 11:15 PM EST: Added information about Google banning the Parler app.