Donald Trump could be banned from Twitter, company says, but President-elect's Facebook is probably safe

Anyone who violates the site’s terms of service would be kicked off the site – even the President

Andrew Griffin
Thursday 01 December 2016 14:13 GMT
Comments
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump waves to the crowd at a fundraising event in Lawrenceville, New Jersey on May 19, 2016
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump waves to the crowd at a fundraising event in Lawrenceville, New Jersey on May 19, 2016 (EDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZ/AFP/Getty Images)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Donald Trump could be banned from Twitter, the company has said.

The social network has said that if the President-elect breaks its rules with his tweets then they will shut down the account. But Facebook has suggested it will allow the incoming President to break the rules and stay on the service.

Twitter said that if Mr Trump explicitly makes threats or breaks the site’s rules in other ways, then it will ban him from using the service.

“The Twitter Rules prohibit violent threats, harassment, hateful conduct, and multiple account abuse, and we will take action on accounts violating those policies,” a Twitter spokesperson told Slate.

Pressed on whether that meant that it would ban Mr Trump for expressing such views, the company said that those rules apply to all accounts without exception, including for those that are verified.

The President-elect has used his Twitter in ways that have been regularly criticised. But he said at the debates that he was “not un-proud” of the way he tweets, despite the sustained criticism.

Twitter has banned other members of the alt-right in the past. Milo Yiannopoulos, for instance, was permanently kicked off the site after a campaign of abuse against Ghostbusters actor Leslie Jones.

Facebook, in comparison, has indicated in the past that it wouldn’t ban Donald Trump, even if he was breaking the site’s rules. That’s because his posts are more newsworthy and well-supported than those posted by normal users, it has suggested.

Mr Trump does run a Facebook account, but its posts tend to be more considered and feature graphics and posts that appear to have been written by his team. Many of Mr Trump’s tweets however appear to be more spontaneous, often written at strange hours of the day and apparently posted by the President-elect himself.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in