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Some Twitter employees have made their accounts private and cleaned up their bios online, fearing they would be targeted by supporters of President Trump, the New York Times reported. Additionally, some Twitter executives have been given personal security, as the company reckons with its decision to ban one of its strongest voices.
Trump’s @realDonaldTrump account was permanently suspended from Twitter on Jan. 8, “due to the risk of further incitement to violence,” Twitter said. in his statement. The president told supporters at a rally just before an attack on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6 that they “should show some strength” and “fight a lot harder”, encouraging them to come down to Capitol Hill. Trump tweeted that Vice President Mike Pence “didn’t have the guts to do what should have been done”, and later – while the attack was still going on – tweeted “we love you” to his supporters. The House of Representatives impeached Trump a second time on January 13 for “inciting insurgency.”
According to Times, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, who was working remotely from a private island on the day of the riot, wasn’t entirely convinced that a temporary ban by the president on that day was the right move. Twitter executives told Dorsey that the response to Trump’s tweets in the aftermath of the riot suggested there was great potential for more real-world violence, ultimately leading to the permanent suspension.
More than 300 Twitter employees had signed an internal petition calling for a permanent suspension of Trump, but according to the Times, the company had already decided at that time to ban the president. After Twitter announced its ban, Snapchat issued its own permanent ban, and Twitch and Facebook put indefinite bans on President Trump’s accounts. Facebook said in a statement explaining its decision: “The risks of allowing the president to continue using our service … are just too great. Additionally, Shopify has removed Trump’s campaign store, a primary source of sales for Make America Great Again hats and other products.
In a Wednesday tweet threadDorsey said banning Trump’s account was the right move. “The offline damage resulting from online speech is clearly real, and what drives our policy and our enforcement above all else,” he wrote, adding that Twitter should “critically examine the inconsistencies in our policy and its application.
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