BREAKING: Twitter Permanently Suspends President Trump’s Account
Twitter has permanently suspended President Trump’s Twitter account “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," Twitter said Friday evening.
“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,” Twitter said in a blog posted online Friday evening.
“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," they said. "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 move comes a day after Facebook made a similar decision. Facebook originally banned the president from its platforms (Facebook and Instagram) following the violence in Washington, D.C. for 24 hours on Wednesday.
On Thursday, the company's CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the extension of the ban. They will suspend his accounts until at least the end of his term.
"We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great," Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post Thursday. "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."
This is a developing story. We’ll have more details shortly.