After the violent storming of the U.S. Capitol by radical supporters of President Donald Trump, the online service Twitter has drawn consequences: The personal account of the outgoing head of state has been “permanently” blocked, the California-based company announced. The reason for this was “the risk of further incitement to violence”.
Shortly before the change of office in the White House, the Democrats are calling for a new impeachment trial against Trump. Criticism is also growing in the ranks of the Republicans.
The decision to permanently block Trump’s Twitter account was made after a “thorough review” of his recent tweets, a statement from the company said. Specifically, it said, it was about two posts from Friday. In one of the tweets, Trump had explicitly backed all of his supporters despite storming the Capitol. In the second tweet, he had announced his intention to stay away from the swearing-in of his successor, Joe Biden, on Jan. 20, against all tradition.
The posts contradicted the company’s policy against glorifying violence, Twitter explained. The company also suspended the @TeamTrump account, which had been maintained by the Republican’s campaign team.
Twitter also confirmed reports that several hundred employees had written to group CEO Jack Dorsey to express their dismay over Wednesday’s “riot” by Trump supporters. The employees called for an investigation into Twitter’s role in the escalation.
Trump condemned the suspension of his private Twitter account, addressing his followers via the official account of the U.S. president: “Tonight, Twitter staff joined with Democrats and the radical left to remove my account from their platform to silence me and you 75 million great patriots who voted for me.” Trump announced they were in negotiations with several other websites and were also considering building their own platform in the near future. Twitter immediately removed the post. “Using another account to avoid being blocked is a violation of our policies,” a company spokesperson told the AFP news agency.
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