Today, the U.S. President Trump Twitter account is suspended for 12 hours after rioters stormed the Capitol Hill building. The social platform also deleted three tweets enticing President Trump supporters by saying that President-elect Joe Biden is a fraud, called them “very special” people, and tweeting a video which the platform said “risk of violence”. Twitter has warned President Trump account can be banned over “repeated and severe violations” of its civic integrity policy.
This means that the account of @realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours following the removal of these Tweets. If the Tweets are not removed, the account will remain locked.
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) January 7, 2021
President Trump Twitter account suspended over “risk of violence”
The unrest took place at the time when Congress was counting the 2020 Presidential election votes after the President’s “Save America” rally. What is appears that the supporters wanted to stop the counting of Electoral College votes which would have confirmed President-elect Joe Biden’s win in the recent election.
Twitter restricted replies and retweeting of President Trump’s tweet supporting the riot and claiming his victory in the 2020 elections. Later, the tweet was removed by the company “as a result of the unprecedented and ongoing violent situation.”
“These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!”
Unfortunately, a woman was shot dead and the building was vandalized badly as rioters broke down doors, shattered windows, stole, and struggled with the law enforcement officers. As Congress reconvened the vote-counting process, the representative called the rioters “domestic terrorists and few thousand violent extremists” and held President Trump responsible for the violence for spreading conspiracy theories via social media that encouraged “thugs” to storm a democratic process.
Predominately, during his reign, President Trump Twitter account was used to attack dissent, spread unverified information, and support white supremacists. However, previously Twitter did not remove but only restricted his messages glorifying violence because of his status. When looting incidents took place during the Geroge Floyd protests, President Trump tweeted “when the looting starts, the shooting starts,” and failed to condemn the white supremacists for attacking peaceful protestors at various occasions.
Today’s events have forced Twitter to take stronger action and the platform revokes special treatment of President Trump Twitter account and in light of public interest, has deprioritized its policy.
“Our public interest policy — which has guided our enforcement action in this area for years — ends where we believe the risk of harm is higher and/or more severe.”- Twitter
We’ll continue to evaluate the situation in real time, including examining activity on the ground and statements made off Twitter. We will keep the public informed, including if further escalation in our enforcement approach is necessary.
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) January 7, 2021
Read More:
5 comments
Comments are closed.