Twitter bans President Trump permanently

Americans need no longer worry about the nuclear launch codes ending up on Twitter as, on Friday, the social network company finally took the long-overdue decision to permanently kick President Donald Trump off the platform. The company said in a tweet that it made the decision "due to the risk of further incitement of violence" as it feared the president's most recent tweets were being interpreted as supporting those who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6. According to CNBC, Twitter stated that plans for future armed protests had already been proliferating both on and off the platform in the aftermath of the riot, including a proposed attack on the U.S. Capitol and state capitol buildings on January 17.

The tweet reads: "After close review of recent Tweets from the Donald Trump 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. Our public interest framework exists to enable the public to hear from elected officials and world leaders directly. It is built on a principle that the people have a right to hold power to account in the open."

"However, we made it clear going back years that these accounts are not above our rules and cannot use Twitter to incite violence. We will continue to be transparent around our policies and their enforcement," the statement concludes. Given the permanent suspension, which amounts to a ban, Trump can no longer access his account — which had 88.7 million followers prior to the latest development — and his tweets and profile picture have been deleted.

Although Trump tweeted a statement addressing the suspension in a series of tweets from the POTUS account, the tweets were reportedly removed from the service almost immediately. Twitter told CNN that the Trump campaign's account has also been permanently banned; a move that followed the account sharing the same four-tweet thread. "As we've said, using another account to try to evade a suspension is against our rules," a Twitter spokesperson said in a statement. The company explained that it would not suspend intuitional accounts like @POTUS and @WhiteHouse unless it became a question of avoiding real-world harm.

However, it could limit those accounts' capabilities before transferring the accounts to the next administration. In Trump's statement, he accused Twitter employees of having "coordinated with the Democrats and the Radical Left in removing my account from their platform, to silence me — and YOU, the 75,000,000 great patriots who voted for me. Twitter may be a private company, but without the government’s gift of Section 230 they would not exist for long." Civil rights leaders who have long criticized tech platforms for spreading hate speech and division welcomed Twitter's decision to ban Trump.

"A fitting end to a legacy of spewing hate and vitriol," said Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League. "President Trump incited the violent riots at the Capitol using social media & paid the price." Eric Naing, a spokesman for Muslim Advocates, said Twitter "is showing real leadership. As Twitter notes, letting Trump continue to post tweets, Facebook posts, and YouTube videos for his white nationalist supporters risks 'further incitement of violence.' Now it is up to Facebook and Google/YouTube to follow Twitter's lead."