Twitter Permanently Bans President Trump

Twitter has permanently banned President Trump from the platform, citing "the risk of further incitement of violence," the company announced late Friday. The ban follows the assault on the U.S. Capitol this week, which Mr. Trump is accused of inciting.

"After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence," the company said in a statement.

While the company said it wants the public to hear from elected officials on its platform, those leaders are not above its rules against inciting violence.

In a blog post Friday, Twitter said it determined that two of the president's tweets violated its rules on glorifying violence. In the first tweet, Mr. Trump said: "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!!!"

Twitter said some have interpreted this as support for the rioters who stormed the Capitol this week and that he plans to continue supporting people who believe his false claims of winning the 2020 election.

In the second tweet, Mr. Trump said he wouldn't be attending President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration. Twitter said this could depict the election as illegitimate.

Mr. Trump frequently used Twitter to drive the news cycle, attack political opponents and announce policy changes. But he also used the platform to share unfounded claims of voter fraud, which ultimately led to his removal from the platform.

Twitter is the first social media account to permanently bar Mr. Trump from their platform. Earlier in the week, Facebook, Instagram, Twitch and Snapchat all temporarily disabled Mr. Trump's accounts for "inciting violence."

Five people lost their lives as a result of the violence on the U.S. Capitol this week, including a police officer who died from his injuries a day later and a woman who was fatally shot by police.

First published on January 8, 2021 / 6:33 PM