San Francisco braces for pro-Trump rally at Twitter headquarters

Days after social media giant Twitter banned President Trump from its platform following the violent takeover of the U.S. Capitol, San Francisco police were preparing for a protest by their supporters on Monday at the headquarters of the company.

Although there was no official word on a mass protest, there was traffic on social media urging supporters of the president to rally at Twitter headquarters.

The thousands of Twitter employees who would normally be at work on Monday have not been in the building since March 2020, when they were told to work remotely due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

In a statement to the San Francisco Chronicle Sunday night, a company spokesperson said Twitter respects “the right of people to express their opinions.”

“While we respect people’s right to express their opinions, we were transparent about the factors that led to our decision last week,” the spokesperson said in an email. “We have nothing to add, but we wanted to confirm that we continue to have mandatory home work for Twitter employees.”

San Francisco Police told the newspaper they had plans in place – including calling for mutual aid from neighboring law enforcement – if needed.

Twitter announced on Friday afternoon that it had permanently suspended Mr. Trump’s account, fearing his tweets would incite violence.

In a statement, the company said Twitter officials reviewed Mr. Trump’s tweets from last week and determined they violated the site’s policies.

The suspension came just days after Trump supporters took control of the U.S. Capitol by force, leading to the deaths of five people as Congress began to certify Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election .

“In the context of the horrific events of this week, we made it clear on Wednesday that further violations of Twitter’s rules would potentially result in this same course of action,” Twitter wrote at the time. “Our public interest framework exists to allow the public to directly hear from elected officials and world leaders. It is based on the principle that people have the right to hold power and be accountable in public.”

“However, we made it clear years ago that these accounts are not entirely above our rules and cannot use Twitter to incite violence, among other things.”

The statement includes Twitter documentation of Trump’s tweets that the company said violated its standards of “glorifying violence.”

Twitter wasn’t the only one taking action against the president. Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Youtube have also suspended Trump and Amazon accounts, Apple and Google all started pro-Trump Talking off their platforms.