Days after social media giant Twitter banned President Trump from his platform following the violent capture of the U.S. Capitol, San Francisco police were preparing for a rally of his followers Monday at the headquarters of the company.
While there has been no official word on a mass demonstration, there has been traffic on social media urging supporters of the president to gather at the Twitter headquarters.
The thousands of Twitter employees who would normally work on Mondays have not been in the building since March 2020, when they were told to work remotely due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
In a statement to the San Francisco Chronicle Sunday night, a company spokesman said Twitter respects “people’s right to express their opinion.”
“While we respect the right of people to express their views, we have been transparent about the factors that led to our decision last week,” the spokesman said in an email. “We have nothing to add, but we wanted to confirm that we continue to have mandatory guidance from home for Twitter employees.”
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San Francisco police told the newspaper they had plans, including calling for mutual help from nearby police agencies, if necessary.
Twitter announced Friday afternoon that it had permanently suspended Trump’s account for concerns that his tweets could incite violence.
In a statement, the company said Twitter officials had reviewed Trump’s tweets last week and determined they were violating the site’s policies.
The suspension came just days after Trump supporters took the U.S. Capitol by force, killing five people as Congress began certifying victory in Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential election.
“In the context of this week’s horrific events, we made it clear on Wednesday that additional breaches of Twitter rules could result in this very course,” Twitter wrote at the time. “Our public interest framework exists to allow the public to listen directly to elected officials and world leaders. It is based on a principle that people have a right to demand power from accountability.”
“However, we made it clear that for years these accounts are not above our rules and that they cannot use Twitter to incite violence, among other things.”
The statement includes Twitter documentation of Trump’s tweets that the company said violated its “glorification of violence” standards.
Twitter was not the only one to take action against the president. Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Youtube have also suspended Trump accounts and Amazon, Apple and Google have ripped pro-Trump Parler off their platforms.