@RealDonaldTrump has gone dark.<\/p>\n
President Trump has been permanently banned from his favored social media platform.<\/p>\n
For years, as he rose to political prominence and through is presidency, Trump has used Twitter as his personal bully pulpit. He has enjoyed unfiltered access to tens of millions of supporters and detractors — and an ecosystem of journalists that hang on his every tweet. Since his election loss in November, Trump has used Twitter to sow misinformation and spread distrust of the election result and the certification process, spinning unfounded conspiracy theories that he was robbed of victory by fraud and deceit that he was unable to document in any court of law.<\/p>\n
Twitter has long given Trump license to say just about anything. In recent weeks it had taken to flagging the presidents’ lie-filled tweets as inaccurate. This week’s violence at the Capitol clearly drove a reconsideration inside the company about the civic cost-benefit of continuing to give provide its most famous user a platform.<\/p>\n
Twitter’s “Safety” account explained the decision on Friday evening, writing that the extraordinary step had been taken to prevent “the risk of further incitement of violence,” following Trump’s incitement of the mob that stormed the Capitol on January 6th.<\/p>\n
Twitter had, earlier this week, put Trump in a 12-hour timeout and demanded he remove a series of Tweets. The de-platforming of the president occurred after Trump posted a pair of new tweets declaring he would boycott the inauguration of President Joe Biden and praising “American Patriots,” which Twitter interpreted as a veiled invitation to a new round of violence.<\/p>\n
“After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them — specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter — we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence,” the company wrote on its official blog.<\/p>\n