Social Media Giant Twitter has permanently banned US president Donald Trump from using its platform.
This comes in the wake of the refusal, according to Twitter, by President Trump to commit to a smooth transition from his administration to Joe Biden’s on January 20, 2020.
Twitter wrote on its blog posted Friday, 8 January 2021 that:
“After a 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.”
“In the context of horrific events this week, we made it clear on Wednesday that additional violations of the Twitter Rules would potentially result in this very course of action. Our public interest framework exists to enable the public to hear from elected officials and world leaders directly. It is built on a principle that the people have a right to hold power to account in the open.”
“However, we made it clear going back years that these accounts are not above our rules entirely and cannot use Twitter to incite violence, among other things. We will continue to be transparent around our policies and their enforcement.”
The ban is a major blow to Trump as he had used the social media platform to reach out to up to a 89 million followers directly without having to go through the mainstream media.
Analysts also note that Twitter will miss him for he helped to popularise the medium as a powerful and cheap avenue for communicating to the public.
Other social media platforms like Google, Reddit and Facebook have taken stern action against the US president for his recent moves to mobilize supporters to oppose the results of the November 3, 2020 US elections that were won by his democratic rival Joe Biden.
