Social media giant Twitter has restored access to President Trump’s account after issuing a 12-hour suspension to the President following his comments about yesterday’s protests on Capitol Hill. Although the suspension was for 12 hours, Trump did not tweet for almost a full 24 hours from the time his posts and video were censored by the platform.
BBC News reports that the social media site Twitter has restored access to President Trump’s account following a 12-hour suspension. The site issued its harshest punishment yet to President Trump following his comments about recent protests during which protestors breached the United States Capitol.
A Twitter spokesperson confirmed to Breitbart News that some of the President’s tweets were deleted and the 12-hour account lock began following the deletion. A Twitter spokesperson stated: “As we shared yesterday, we’re continuing to evaluate the situation in real time, including examining activity on the ground and statements made off Twitter. We will keep the public informed, including if further escalation in our enforcement approach is necessary.” Twitter has now restored the account.
Twitter has previously faced major criticism over its failure to moderate President Trump’s tweets in the past, however, Breitbart News has reported extensively on Twitter’s attempts around the 2020 election to censor and suppress the President’s tweets.
The latest suspension comes following the President’s tweets about the 2020 presidential race and allegations of voter fraud. A video posted by President Trump addressing protestors appeared to be the catalyst for the suspension. A transcript of the President’s message can be seen below:
I know your pain. I know your hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us. 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. We have to respect our great people in law and order. We don’t want anybody hurt.
It’s a very tough period of time. There’s never been a time like this, where such a thing happened, where they could take it away from all of us; from me, from you, from our country. This was a fraudulent election.
But we can’t play into the hands of these people. We have to have peace. So go home. We love you, you’re very special, you’ve seen what happens, you see the way others are treated who are so bad and so evil. I know how you feel. But go home, and go home in peace.
Twitter tweeted about its decision and warned that Trump could be permanently suspended from the site:
Twitter required Trump to delete the tweets that caused the ban in order to obtain access to his account. President Trump has since tweeted another video condemning the Capitol Hill protests, it can be seen below:
Twitter further threatened Trump that any tweets it deems to break its rules would result in a permanent ban.
Congressional Democrats including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) have called for his immediate banning from the platform.
Breitbart News has also reported that tech giant Facebook issued a 24-hour suspension of the President’s account which has now become an “indefinite” ban.
Facebook’s VP of Integrity, Guy Rosen, stated: “This is an emergency situation and we are taking appropriate emergency measures, including removing President Trump’s video. We removed it because on balance we believe it contributes to rather than diminishes the risk of ongoing violence.”
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated in a recent post that following the events on Capitol Hill yesterday and President Trump’s comments on social media about the situation, Facebook would be banning the President’s access to the platform “indefinitely.”
Zuckerberg stated in a Facebook post:
The shocking events of the last 24 hours clearly demonstrate that President Donald Trump intends to use his remaining time in office to undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power to his elected successor, Joe Biden.
His decision to use his platform to condone rather than condemn the actions of his supporters at the Capitol building has rightly disturbed people in the US and around the world. We removed these statements yesterday because we judged that their effect — and likely their intent — would be to provoke further violence.
Following the certification of the election results by Congress, the priority for the whole country must now be to ensure that the remaining 13 days and the days after inauguration pass peacefully and in accordance with established democratic norms.
Over the last several years, we have allowed President Trump to use our platform consistent with our own rules, at times removing content or labeling his posts when they violate our policies. We did this because we believe that the public has a right to the broadest possible access to political speech, even controversial speech. But the current context is now fundamentally different, involving use of our platform to incite violent insurrection against a democratically elected government.
We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great. Therefore, we are extending the block we have placed on his Facebook and Instagram accounts indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete.
Breitbart News will update readers as more information about the President’s online presence is available.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address lucasnolan@protonmail.com