Well, it finally happened.
A day after Facebook and Instagram (and Shopify and Twitch) announced they would no longer allow Donald Trump to post lies and incite violence on their platforms, Twitter has jumped on the bandwagon. “After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence,” reads a tweet released Friday on the Twitter Safety account.
“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,” continues the tweet thread, of course referencing the pro-Trump extremist mob that broke into the United States Capitol this week, which resulted in at least five deaths. “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 and cannot use Twitter to incite violence. We will continue to be transparent around our policies and their enforcement.”
The permanent suspension comes after Twitter first removed two particularly egregious tweets by Trump in the midst of the attempted coup, then suspended the @realDonaldTrump account for 12 hours. Trump returned to the platform on Thursday with a video of him giving as close to a concession speech as we’re ever going to get, but by Friday he was back to stirring up his followers. “The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future,” he tweeted. “They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!”
People have been calling for social media sites to stop giving Trump a direct platform for years. Two weeks before he leaves office was when we finally got it—though we guess this will hit him in the gut more than his impeachment did.