A controversy erupted in the United States following Twitter’s decision to permanently cancel President Donald Trump’s account, alleging risks of “more incitement to violence” following Wednesday’s deadly insurgency at the Federal Capitol
Shannon McGregor, an adjunct professor of journalism and media at the University of North Carolina, said the measure allows Twitter to try to get along with the Biden government. Trump “has only two weeks left in power and that certainly makes it easier to remove the president from the platform,” he said.
While Trump could migrate to another alternative platform on Twitter, such as Parler or Gab, doing so will greatly limit his influence, McGregor said. Trump has always longed for legitimacy and position in the mainstream media, despite his complaints about the traditional work of journalists, which he has long referred to as “fake news.” She will not achieve this on other platforms, the teacher opined.
Others saw a more sinister omen in Twitter action. “The Great Technology is not going to stop with the president of the United States,” tweeted Kay James, president of the conservative group The Heritage Foundation. “They can ban you and everyone who reads this.”
Jonathan Greenblatt, who heads the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), said Friday that ousting Trump from Twitter was an “excellent step” and “an appropriate end to a legacy.” ‘hatred and malicious criticism’. ADL was part of a coalition of defense and civil rights groups that on Friday called on Twitter to cancel Trump’s account.
Twitter, long accused of treating the president with lukewarmness, began monitoring Trump’s tweets more vigorously from the early days of the presidential campaign, when the company began actively tagging its fake tweets about the allegedly widespread electoral fraud, claiming they were dubious. A real permanent suspension had been almost unimaginable, at least until he lost his re-election candidacy.
Twitter had long given Trump and other world leaders broad exceptions to their rules, which prohibit personal attacks, hate speech and other behaviors, but in an explanation posted on his blog on Friday, the company said Trump’s recent tweets were tantamount to a glorification of violence when read in the context of the Capitol riots and plans circulating online for future armed protests over the swearing-in of President-elect Joe Biden .
The social network has been under increasing pressure to take stronger action against Trump following Wednesday’s acts of violence. On Thursday, Facebook suspended Trump’s account until Jan. 20 and possibly indefinitely. Twitter initially suspended the president’s account for 12 hours after he posted a video in which he repeated false accusations of election fraud and praised the agitators who flattened Congress.
Trump’s Twitter account had served as a mix of policy announcements, often unexpected; complaints about the media; contempt for women, minorities and those they consider to be their enemies; and praise for his supporters, full of signs of admiration, words written entirely in capital letters, and one-word statements like “Sad!”.
The president has used Twitter to announce the dismissal of numerous officials. His tweets, as well as his speeches at rallies, were a torrent of false information.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment. Twitter did not give access to its CEO Jack Dorsey and gave no further details.
The official account of the President of the United States, @POTUS, remains active. In fact, Trump, who issued a statement Friday night accusing Twitter of being an enemy of free speech and raised the idea that he could develop his own “platform,” also posted it in the @POTUS account, from where it was quickly deleted.
Twitter says using another account to evade a suspension goes against its rules and that while it will not ban government accounts like @POTUS or @WhiteHouse, it will “take steps to limit its use.”
In Trump’s tweets quoted by Twitter, the president announced that he would not attend the swearing-in and referred to his supporters as “American patriots,” saying they will have “a giant voice for a long time to come.” Twitter said these statements “will likely inspire others to reproduce the acts of violence that occurred on January 6, 2021 and there are multiple indications that they are being received and understood as an incentive to do so.”
Twitter said its policies allow world leaders to address the public, but said those accounts “are not totally above our standards” and cannot use the social network to incite violence. Trump had approximately 89 million followers.
Twitter shares fell about 4% in post-stock exchange transactions, reflecting fears that the suspension of Trump’s account could influence a reduction in social media usage and advertising sales.