Seating US President Donald Trump has been banned from most major social media platforms after the riots that happened last week.
On January 9, Twitter made the decision to ban Trump from the platform permanently.
In a blog post, Twitter wrote that ‘after close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them’, the platform has ‘permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence’.
Trump also finds himself banned from Facebook and Instagram, indefinitely.
Since then, other social media platforms like Snapchat also banned Trump. While he does not have a TikTok account, the video-sharing platform has banned videos in which Trump calls rioters ‘very special’ and claims election fraud.
The only app which Trump could have turned to in order to get him heard has been removed from the Apple and Google app stores.
Parler, which brands itself as a ‘free speech’ alternative to Twitter and Facebook and is very popular among Trump supporters, was removed by Apple and Google for not sufficiently reviewing its user’s posts.
The New York Times reported that Amazon told Parler that it would boot the company from its web-hosting service on Sunday for repeatedly violating its rules.
“Big tech really wants to kill competition,” John Matze, Parler’s chief executive, said. “And I have a lot of work to do in the next 24 hours to make sure everyone’s data is not permanently deleted off the internet.”
“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.point 272 |
Our public interest framework exists to enable the public to hear from elected officials and world leaders directly.point 99 | It is built on a principle that the people have a right to hold power to account in the open,” Twitter said in a statement.point 200 | “However, we made it clear going back years that these accounts are not above our rules entirely and cannot use Twitter to incite violence, among other things.point 335 |
We will continue to be transparent around our policies and their enforcement.point 66 | ”point 69 | 1
Facebook also said in a statement that it believes the risk of allowing Trump to continue using its platform are ‘simply too great’. The platform added that he would be banned indefinitely or at least until Joe Biden takes office on January 20.