Twitter has permanently suspended President Donald Trump from accessing his account.
Twitter’s decision follows Facebook’s move on Thursday to block Trump “indefinitely.” The latter platform cited the risks to the president continuing to use the site. Facebook’s ban will last for at least the next two weeks, until after President-elect Joe Biden takes office.
“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,” the company said in a tweet.
The actions by social-media platforms against Trump came two days after pro-Trump rioters stormed the US Capitol as a joint session of Congress convened to certify the election results. The violent insurrection resulted in evacuations from the Capitol and five deaths.
As police worked to contain the rioters, Trump posted a video on Twitter in which he made a baseless claim of election fraud and told the rioters, “Go home. We love you; you’re very special.” Twitter said it was locking down Trump’s account until he deleted the tweet, along with two others, which he did sometime after the riots ended on Wednesday. The deletion started a 12-hour clock, after which Trump could regain access to his account.
