A few days ago, after Twitter temporarily suspended Donald Trump’s account, the company said that any further breaches of its terms could result in suspension. As detailed in a blog post, Twitter decided that some of the president’s tweets posted today violate its policies and as a result his personal @realdonaldtrump account is no longer active. He’d tweeted more than 56,000 times since creating the account in 2009, and had over 88 million followers.
The @POTUS account is still present on Twitter, however without the retweeted tweets from Trump’s preferred account, it’s looking very inactive. The same goes for his official campaign account @TeamTrump, and accounts for other Trump family member.
According to Twitter, two tweets posted this morning (available for viewing at an archive) “must be read in the context of broader events in the country and the ways in which the President’s statements can be mobilized by different audiences, including to incite violence, as well as in the context of the pattern of behavior from this account in recent weeks...As such, our determination is that the two Tweets above are likely to inspire others to replicate the violent acts that took place on January 6, 2021, and that there are multiple indicators that they are being received and understood as encouragement to do so.”
Twitter also cited plans that have circulated on social media for future violent acts. It said “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.”
Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook already said his account would remain suspended through at least inauguration day, and now the Twitter account where Trump built up much of his following before becoming president has been erased. Sadly, this move comes after violent events have already occurred on Capitol Hill, leaving several people dead including some of Trump’s supporters and a police officer. With only a few days left in the Trump administration Twitter finally did what some have believed it could’ve done years ago.
Update (8:42 PM ET): The ban apparently extends to Trump no matter what account he might try to use, as a tweet from the @POTUS account posted and was quickly deleted as well.