Twitter suspended the account of US President Donald Trump forever. On Saturday, Twitter suspended his account after Trump’s tweet sparked fears of violence. There was a lot of pressure on Twitter to suspend Trump’s account. Several bigwigs, including Michelle Obama, demanded Trump’s account be closed.
What led to this action?
Trump made two tweets on Friday. In one, he described his supporters of violence as revolutionary, while in the other he said that he would not go to the Presidential Inauguration (Swearing ceremony of Biden) on January 20. A few minutes after these two tweets, the tweets of Trump’s account stopped appearing and the message of the account suspended began to show. Trump’s Twitter account had more than 88 million followers.
The social media platform considered Trump’s tweets as violence provoking. The company said that these tweets incite people to repeat a criminal incident like capitol hill chaos. Which is against the Civic Integrity Policy of Twitter. Twitter said in a blog post that Trump’s personal account @realDonaldTrump is being closed immediately.
What did Twitter say in a blog post?
Twitter said in its blog post that we had said on Wednesday only that we will take tough measures against Trump if he ignores the policy of Twitter and make inflammatory tweets. Even then, he made provocative tweets again on Friday. We have said earlier that the account of any of the biggest leaders is not above our rules. Twitter has also posted both the latest tweets of Trump and his analysis in the post. Which became the reason for the permanent suspension of his account.
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.https://t.co/CBpE1I6j8Y
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) January 8, 2021
Trump’s reaction
After the personal account was closed, Trump tweeted to the President’s official account @POTUS, “We will build a new platform in the future. Our voice cannot be suppressed. Twitter is suppressing our authority. Twitter removed my account on the persuasion of Democrats. The voices of 70 million people cannot be suppressed.”
Twitter also deleted this tweet within few seconds. Trump also tweeted from some other accounts, but they were also deleted by the company immediately.
What is Twitter’s Civic Integrity Policy?
You cannot use Twitter to interfere or influence any civic process, including elections. In this, you cannot share content, photos or videos that confuse people. Twitter considers matters such as election, referendum on an issue, census as part of civic process.
Also read: President Trump Blocked By Facebook And Twitter For 24 Hours
How does an account block take place?
Initially, The option of report tweet appears in the option bar on the right side of any tweet on Twitter. If you want to report a tweet, Twitter gives you some options. After selecting those options, you can report the tweet. After this, Twitter checks it and if the complaint is found right then the account may get blocked.
If someone complains about your tweet on Twitter’s official handle, Twitter cross-checks it. Account can be blocked if the complaint is correct. Twitter also monitors accounts. If the policy of Twitter is violated, Twitter can block it. As happened with Trump’s account.