Twitter suspends Trump's campaign account 'Team Trump'
Jan 09, 2021
Washington [US], January 9 : After permanently suspending the @realDonaldTrump account of outgoing US President, Twitter late on Friday (local time) also suspended his campaign account, @Team Trump, for violating rules of the social media platform.
Twitter also struck down several tweets posted on the official POTUS (President of the United States) account.
The suspension follows Facebook banning him from using the platform for the remainder of his term. Several other digital platforms, like Instagram, YouTube, Twitch etc have taken action against Trump and imposed restrictions on him using their platforms.
Citing "risk of further incitement for violence", Twitter on Friday announced that it is permanently shutting down @realDonaldTrump account, therby cutting him off from what was his preferred medium of communicating with the public for the past four years, posting dozens of times in a day. The President had 88 million Twitter followers.
A couple of hours after this, Trump used the US presidential account handle @POTUS to say that he would not be silenced. "We will not be SILENCED! Twitter is not about FREE SPEECH. They are all about promoting a Radical Left platform where some of the most vicious people in the world are allowed to speak freely..." Trump wrote.
However, this tweet was made unavailable within a short time after it was posted.
"This Tweet is from a suspended account," Twitter said after striking down the outgoing President's statement. The account had published the same tweets that Trump wrote from the official account.
He further wrote that he is more determined than ever to strip Section 230 protections from Big Tech (Twitter) that let them be immune from lawsuits.
A belligerent Trump also said that he will look at "building out our own platform in the near future".
The last tweet by Trump before his account was shut down was that said he would not be attending the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden on January 20.
To this, Biden responded calling it a "good thing". "One of the few things he and I have ever agreed on," Biden added. "It's a good thing, him not showing up. He's been an embarrassment to the country."
Trump's account suspension comes after a chaotic and violent scene erupted at the Capitol on Wednesday as supporters of Trump stormed the building to protest the Electoral College vote, forcing a lockdown and various confrontations with police. Four people died in the melee.
Wednesday's violence came hours after Trump encouraged his supporters to fight against the election results as Congress was certifying Biden's victory in the November vote.