Microblogging site Twitter has permanently suspended the outgoing US President Donald Trump from its platform over the risk of ‘further incitement of violence’. All tweets from Trump’s account, which had close to 89 million followers, have been wiped out with the message reading, “Twitter suspends accounts which violate the Twitter Rules.”
A statement from Twitter Safety shortly after the suspension read, “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.”
“In the context of horrific events this week, we made it clear on Wednesday that additional violations of the Twitter rules would potentially result in this very course of action,” it added.
Twitter’s decision to permanently ban Trump from its platform was seemingly triggered by the outgoing US President’s two tweets that the latter shared on Friday. They turned out to be his last two tweets.
According to Twitter, ‘these two Tweets 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.’
The first tweet by Trump read, “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!!!”
In his second tweet, Trump said that he had no plans to attend the inauguration of Joe Biden as the next President of America. It read, “To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.”
The decision to permanently ban Trump from Twitter came days after his account was locked for 12 hours for incitement to violence on Wednesday when thousands of terrorists owing allegiance to Trump attacked the Capitol Building, the symbol of American democracy. At least five people including one cop were killed.
There are reports that Trump could either be removed from his post by invoking the 25th Amendment of the US Constitution or through an immediate impeachment process.