Donald Trump permanently banned from Twitter

Social media giant says it took action to prevent 'further incitement of violence’

Donald Trump has been permanently banned from Twitter, the social media giant has announced.

Twitter said it had taken the drastic action because of the “risk of further incitement of violence” if it let the outgoing president continue to use their platform.

The company said that it has seen “plans for future armed protests” on its platform including  “a proposed secondary attack on the US Capitol and state capitol buildings on 17 January, 2021.”

The move came after a review of the outgoing president’s activity in the wake of his supporters rioting at the Capitol Building earlier this week.

“After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them — specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter — we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence," the company’s Twitter Safety account tweeted.

Mr Trump was only allowed back on Twitter on Thursday after his account was suspended for 12 hours and the company had warned him about his future conduct.

“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,” added Twitter.

"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. 

"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. 

“We will continue to be transparent around our policies and their enforcement. ”

The president’s son, Donald Trump Jr, took to Twitter to attack the company’s actions.

“We are living Orwell’s 1984. Free-speech no longer exists in America. It died with big tech and what’s left is only there for a chosen few,” he tweeted.

"This is absolute insanity!

“So the ayatollah, and numerous other dictatorial regimes can have Twitter accounts with no issue despite threatening genocide to entire countries and killing homosexuals etc... but The President of the United States should be permanently suspended. Mao would be proud.”

On the day of the riot the president posted a video on Twitter as his supporters remained inside the Capitol asking them to “go home.”

“We love you. You’re very special. Go home,” he said.

News of the Twitter suspension caused the firm’s share price to dip more than 3 per cent in after-hours trading, according to Reuters.

Mr Trump has been widely blamed for inciting his supporters to march on the Capitol to protest the certification of Joe Biden’s election.

He has been accused of using social media to spread false claims and conspiracy theories about his defeat to Mr Biden and to deny the president-elect’s victory.

Facebook previously announced that Mr Trump’s account on their platform was suspended “indefinitely.”

The company had initially said Mr Trump would be banned for 24-hours before Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post on Thursday that the account would be locked for the remainder of his presidency.

“We believe the risks of allowing the president to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great," he wrote.

Twitter also announced that if Mr Trump tries to use official government accounts, such as @POTUS or @WhiteHouse, they would not suspend the accounts "unless absolutely necessary to alleviate real-world harm".

Instead Twitter said they would “take action to limit their use” before they are handed over to the Biden administration.

Microsoft, founded by Trump-critic Bill Gates, also got in on the fun with a trollingTwitter post that read: “It’s now safe to turn off your computer.”

Users once got that message when their computer had finished its update and was ready to shut down.