Donald Trump uses POTUS account to accuse Twitter of ‘banning free speech’



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Donald Trump accused Twitter of “banning freedom of expression” in a tweet from the POTUS account, hours after being banned from the platform.

Earlier on Friday, the social media company permanently suspended the president’s @realDonaldTrump account and deleted all of his old tweets.

Trump's Twitter account permanently suspended
Image: Trump’s Twitter account is permanently suspended

The Safety Twitter account posted shortly thereafter, saying, “After careful consideration of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context surrounding them, we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of incitement to violence.”

It comes after Mr. Trump was also banned from Facebook and Instagram following riots on the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.

Separately, Google suspended the social media app Talk, favored by many pro-Trump supporters, from its Play Store over posts inciting violence, with Apple threatening to do the same.

In response to his ban, Mr. Trump posted a series of tweets from the @POTUS account accusing the company of going “further and further in banning free speech.”

The tweet quickly deleted
Image: portion of quickly deleted tweet

The rambling tweets were quickly deleted, but not before the screenshots were taken and posted online.

The message continued: “Twitter workers coordinated with Democrats and the radical left to remove my account from their platform, to silence me – and YOU, the 75,000,000 great… patriots who voted for me.”

He said he plans to start his own social media platform in the near future and ended the post by saying, “We will not be QUIET!”

Twitter said the ban was the result of two of the president’s tweets, posted Friday, which violated his policy of glorifying violence.

The first was: “The 75,000,000 great American patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and Make AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a giant voice in the future. They will not be looked down upon or treated unfairly in any way, form or form !!! “

The second offensive tweet was: “To everyone who asked, I will not go to the opening on January 20”.

Twitter said the two posts “were very likely to encourage and inspire people to replicate the criminal acts that took place on the US Capitol.”

The social media giant said its assessment of the tweets revealed they were “received by a number of its supporters as further confirmation that the election was not legitimate” and seen as “refuting” its previous claim that there would be an “orderly transition”. on January 20, when President-elect Joe Biden takes over.

Additionally, Twitter said its second tweet on Friday “could also serve as an encouragement to those potentially considering acts of violence that the inauguration would be a ‘safe’ target.”

Meanwhile, Twitter said plans for future armed protests had already started to “proliferate on and off” the platform, including a proposed secondary attack on the Capitol on January 17.

Previously, they had permanently banned two Trump followers – former national security adviser Michael Flynn and attorney Sidney Powell.

This was part of a larger purge of accounts promoting the QAnon conspiracy theory, of which supporters made up a large part of the rioters.

The company also said Trump’s lawyer Lin Wood was permanently suspended on Tuesday for breaking its rules, but provided no further details.

Separately, Democrats have plans to impeach Trump a second time, with articles of impeachment due on Monday.

A draft resolution accuses Mr. Trump of abuse of power, saying he “has deliberately made statements which have encouraged – and presumably resulted in – looming lawless action on Capitol Hill.”

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