We won’t be silenced: Donald Trump circumvents Twitter ban

Donald Trump uses official @POTUS account to suggest he’ll build an alternative platform to keep posting on social media.

Donald Trump has responded with fury to Twitter’s suspension of his account, using his official @POTUS account to tweet: “We will not be SILENCED.”

Twitter said earlier today it would permanently suspend the US President’s account “due to the risk of further incitement of violence.”

But Mr Trump succeeded in temporarily circumventing the ban, sending four tweets before they disappeared from the social media platform.

In his tweets, the President suggested he would build his own, alternative platform to continue posting on social media.

“We have been negotiating with various other sites, and we will have a big announcement soon ... while we also look at the possibilities of building out our own platform in the near future. We will not be SILENCED!” said Mr Trump.

In another quickly-deleted tweet, he accused the social emdia giant of “conspiring with the “Radical Left.”

Trump also tweeted from the @TeamTrump campaign account, which was soon suspended.

“Using another account to try to evade a suspension is against our rules,” Twitter told AFP.

“We have taken steps to enforce this with regard to recent Tweets from the @POTUS account.”

Twitter told US media it would move to suspend any other accounts Mr Trump might try to use to evade his ban.

“If it is clear that another account is being used for the purposes of evading a ban, it is also subject to suspension,” Twitter said in a statement, reports CNN. “For government accounts, such as @POTUS and @WhiteHouse, we will not suspend those accounts but will take action to limit their use. However, these accounts will be transitioned over to the new administration in due course and will not be suspended by Twitter unless absolutely necessary to alleviate real-world harm.”

Social media companies such as Twitter have the right to decide what appears on their platforms and set standards for appropriate content. The First Amendment right to free speech prevents governments from stifling expression and does not apply to private businesses.

Talk of new attack

Twitter said it also factored in that plans for more armed protests have been proliferating on and off the service, including a proposed second attack on the US Capitol and state capitol buildings on January 17.

Trump’s tweeted statement about not attending the Inauguration has been received by some supporters as his continued rejection of the election’s legitimacy and a sign that the event would be a “safe target” since he won’t be there, according to Twitter.

Supporters also viewed the tweets’ wording as praise for those involved in what has been described as a coup attempt and indication he does not plan to yield power to President-elect Biden, Twitter said in the post.

“We are living Orwell’s 1984,” Donald Trump Jr. tweeted from his account. “This is absolute insanity!”

Twitter permanently suspends Trump account

Twitter has permanently suspended Donald Trump’s account in the wake of the violence at the US Capitol this week.

In a statement released Saturday morning (AEDT), the social media platform said it was taking the action against the US President “Due to the risk of further incitement of violence.”

After 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.https://t.co/CBpE1I6j8Y

— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) January 8, 2021

In a blog post, Twitter said the tweets violated the company’s policy against the glorification of violence.

It named two tweets that, read in the context of the recent events in the US, violated its policy, “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.”

In the first, Mr Trump again defended his supporters, many of whom stormed the Capitol and were responsible for the mayhem in the building on Thursday.

“The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!,” Mr Trump tweeted today.

In the second, he said he would shun Joe Biden’s inauguration: “To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.”

‘Safe target’ fears

Twitter said the second tweet could be viewed as a further statement that the election was not legitimate and could be interpreted as the outgoing President telling supporters the inauguration would be a “safe” target for violence because he would not be attending.

The dramatic move comes as Democrats prepare to present articles of impeachment against Mr Trump on Monday, accusing him of “inciting insurrection.”

More than 150 House Democrats, well over half of the caucus, have signed on to articles of impeachment written by Reps. David Cicilline of Rhode Island, Ted Lieu of California and Jamie Raskin of Maryland that focus on the breach of the Capitol complex and accuse the president of inciting an insurrection.

“This conduct is so grave and this president presents such a clear and present danger to our democracy, I don’t think you can simply say let’s just wait it out” until the president leaves office, said Mr. Cicilline in an interview.

Twitter has taken action after Facebook also banned Mr Trump from Facebook and Instagram indefinitely, or at least until he leaves office as US president.

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the ban on Facebook and Instagram early on Friday.

“The shocking events of the last 24 hours clearly demonstrate that President Donald Trump intends to use his remaining time in office to undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power to his elected successor, Joe Biden,” Mr Zuckerberg said in a post on his Facebook account.

“His decision to use his platform to condone rather than condemn the actions of his supporters at the Capitol building has rightly disturbed people in the US and around the world. We removed these statements yesterday because we judged that their effect – and likely their intent – would be to provoke further violence.

“Following the certification of the election results by Congress, the priority for the whole country must now be to ensure that the remaining 13 days and the days after inauguration pass peacefully and in accordance with established democratic norms.

‘Risks too great’

“Over the last several years, we have allowed President Trump to use our platform consistent with our own rules, at times removing content or labelling his posts when they violate our policies. We did this because we believe that the public has a right to the broadest possible access to political speech, even controversial speech. But the current context is now fundamentally different, involving use of our platform to incite violent insurrection against a democratically elected government.

“We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great. Therefore, we are extending the block we have placed on his Facebook and Instagram accounts indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete.”

Fact-check fury

Trump, who at 81.7 million followers had one of Twitter’s 10 most popular accounts, preferred using the platform to get out his message without submitting himself to questions from reporters.

But the US leader has been at war with his favored social media platform since the presidential election, after Twitter took the unprecedented decision to fact-check some of his tweets.

Twitter confirmed Friday that several hundred employees signed a letter to chief executive Jack Dorsey saying they were disturbed by the “insurrection” carried out by Trump supporters, who had been rallied by the president.

The employees called for Twitter to assess the role its platform played in Wednesday’s events.

QAnon purge

Twitter also removed the accounts of Michael Flynn and other high-profile Trump supporters who promoted the QAnon conspiracy theory.

“The accounts have been suspended in line with our policy on Coordinated Harmful Activity,” Twitter told AFP.

“Given the renewed potential for violence surrounding this type of behavior in the coming days, we will permanently suspend accounts that are solely dedicated to sharing QAnon content.” Flynn has met with Trump at the White House to collaborate about how to overturn the presidential election results.

— with AFP