In a social media day and age, one of the world's most powerful leaders has now been left unable to air out his opinions. US President Donald Trump has left over 88 million followers in the lurch as Twitter suspended his personal account for good. Logging onto the "@realdonaldtrump" handle will now show you a white screen with a simple message: "Account suspended. Twitter suspends accounts which violate the Twitter Rules".
According to a explanatory blog post by the company, Trump's latest tweets posed a "risk of further incitement of violence". This comes days after the clashes, where Trump's supporters stormed the US Capitol and the President's sympathetic remarks saw him 'banned' for 12 hours.
Twitter contends that his posts since returning have the potential to cause further damage. After his account was restored, he had once again lent his support to the "75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me". In a follow-up post he explained that he would not be attending Biden's inauguration ceremony.
And while innocuous by itself when one considers other Tweets from the President in the past, Twitter contends 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."
Not only Twitter, the US President also remains 'banned' from Facebook and Instagram at present. According to a post by the Facebook Newsroom, the block will remain "indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks". At the end of two weeks incidentally, Trump will no longer be President.
His efforts to use his alternative official handle - the President's Twitter account - have also been thwarted. Soon after he began tweeting up a storm from the POTUS handle, the posts were deleted by Twitter. They no longer appear on the account's feed.
According to screengrabs taken by alert Twitter users, Trump had lashed out at Twitter, accusing employees of "coordinating with the Democrats and the Radical Left" to remove his account in an attempt to silence him and the 75 million other people. He also brought up the possibility of creating his own social media platform and ended the lengthy thread of messages with a entreaty to "stay tuned".
It has not been a good week for US President Donald Trump. Since Monday, he has repeatedly insisted that Vice President Mike Pence can overturn the election results even at this late stage and ensure that he wins. And even as Pence officially stated that this was not a part of this powers as VP, the President continued to amp up the pressure. As the US Congress met to certify Biden's win - a meeting that is led by the VP - angry Trump supporters stormed the Capitol demanding a change. Five people have so far passed away as a direct consequence of the clash, and for several hours the proceedings were held up.
President Trump's rather sympathetic remarks to the protesters, that he loved them and understood their pain, had not gone down well with many, garnering him a temporary social media ban on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, even as other sites removed his posts. Hours later, Joe Biden's win had been certified and a solemn Trump posted a video message condemning the agitators. Leaders from across the world, as well as many from both the Republican and Democratic parties have laid the blame for the attack squarely with the President. Many have also suggested that he be removed from office even before his term ends on January 20.
