President Donald Trump uses POTUS Twitter account to say he will build his own platform after his @realDonaldTrump account gets suspended.
“As I have been saying for a long time, Twitter has gone further and further in banning free speech, and tonight, Twitter employees have coordinated with the Democrats and Radical Left in removing my account from their platform, to silence me,” Trump wrote in a series of tweets that are no longer visible on the social media service.
The tweets were deleted on the service almost immediately. How Twitter is handling the issue of Trump using the POTUS Twitter account remains uncertain.
Earlier in the day, Twitter announced the permanent suspension on President Trump after it initially suspended his account for 24 hours following violent protests by his supporters on the US Capitol.
Twitter said: “After a close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them 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,” the firm added.
Initially, Twitter gave Trump a temporary suspension after he repeatedly made false claims of election fraud, as well as posting a video message saying “I love you” to supporters attacking the US Capitol and calling them “patriots”.
According to Twitter, it removed three tweets from Trump for “severe violations of our Civic Integrity policy” and said the president’s account would be permanently locked if the tweets were not removed.
The social media company continued: “Future violations of the Twitter Rules… will result in permanent suspension of the @realDonaldTrump account”. Trump’s account then stated that those tweets are “no longer available because [they] violated” Twitter’s rules.
Twitter explained: “We have been significantly restricting engagement with Tweets labeled under our Civic Integrity Policy due to the risk of violence.”
The company’s most recent decision followed two tweets by Trump on Trump, which Twitter claims violated its policy against the glorification of violence.
Twitter pointed out that “these two Tweets must be read in the context of broader events in the country and the ways in which the President’s statements can be mobilized by different audiences, including to incite violence, as well as in the context of the pattern of behavior from this account in recent weeks.”
Trump used his POTUS Twitter account to call for the repeal of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a 1996 law that protects tech companies from being held liable for the content produced by users on their platforms. The messaged was supported by Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham.
“I’m more determined than ever to strip Section 230 protections from Big Tech (Twitter) that let them be immune from lawsuits,” Graham tweeted.
Trump stressed that his administration has “been negotiating with various other sites, and will have a big announcement soon.” He noted that his team is looking “at the possibilities of building out our own platform in the near future.”
“We will not be SILENCED! Twitter is not about FREE SPEECH,” Trump wrote in the now removed tweets.