Twitter, one of the strong social media channels which United States President Donald Trump has repeatedly used to make various claims and address his supporters said Wednesday it has locked Trump’s account for consistently violating its rules and protocols.
According to Twitter, the United States President’s latest ethical violations relate to his posts about Wednesday’s incidents at Capitol Hill breach, warning that the account would “remain locked until the president took down the posts”.
Social Media analysts believe this action is the most terrific enforcement of its protocols and rules to date against Trump by Twitter.
It would be recalled that earlier today, both Facebook and Twitter had taken down one of Trump’s posts wherein he was seen calling rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol to “go home” but “repeated the baseless allegations of a rigged election that drew scores of his supporters to Washington.”
Twitter also removed two other tweets from the president Wednesday, including one attacking Vice President Mike Pence and one calling the rioters “great patriots.”
In a 62-second video posted on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter Wednesday afternoon, Trump repeated his baseless claims that the presidential election had been “stolen.”
Social Media Analytics experts told The New Diplomat that “YouTube took down the damaging video which clearly violated the SM’s channels protocols on content.”
Similarly, Facebook removed a post by Trump alleging that the election was rigged. “This is an emergency situation and we are taking appropriate emergency measures, including removing President Trump’s video,” tweeted Facebook integrity chief Guy Rosen. “We removed it because on balance we believe it contributes to rather than diminishes the risk of ongoing violence.”
Correspondingly, Twitter within a few minutes later also blocked users from replying to, liking or retweeting the post, citing a “risk of violence.”
“It was a landslide election and everyone knows it, especially the other side, but you have to go home now. We have to have peace. We have to have law and order,” Trump said in the video, hours after a crowd of rioters breached the Capitol building and invaded the House and Senate chambers.
However, in response to growing concerns about the post, Twitter later restricted, and finally removed, a tweet in which Trump appeared to justify the violence, writing: “These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long.”
Twitter also took down an earlier tweet Wednesday in which Trump said that Pence, who had refused to use his role as president of the Senate to overturn the election results, “didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done.”
Twitter’s public safety division said the company is “working proactively to protect the health of the public conversation occurring on the service and will take action on any content that violates” its rules.
Recall that many SM platforms including Twitter had faced severe criticisms amidst calls to suspend or remove Trump following Wednesday action at the United States Capitol Hill.
The building had to go into lockdown as lawmakers were reportedly evacuated in gas masks as police dispersed tear gas against rioters and persons who were supporters of Trump..
Reacting to this development, Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, said “social media companies should suspend his(Trump) accounts ASAP as they would do for anyone else advocating disinformation and promoting violence.”
Similarly, Rashad Robinson, president of advocacy group Color of Changed, tweeted: “Enough is enough. It’s time for Facebook and Twitter to kick Trump off their platforms.”
