Analyst: Trump Facebook ban mostly "symbolic"
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Twitter has permanently banned President Trump, citing the risk that he would incite further violence.
"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 said late Friday.
© Evan Vucci, APPresident Donald Trump listens during an event on Operation Warp Speed in the Rose Garden of the White House, Friday, Nov. 13, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Twitter, which had locked Trump out of his account Wednesday for inflammatory posts after a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol, lifted the suspension the following day.
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Late Thursday, Trump posted a short video in which he pledged to support a peaceful transition of power.
The account, which had 88.7 million followers, has now vanished.
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Joe Manchin, D-W.V., a key moderate Democrat who came out in support of Trump's removal from office, thanked Twitter. "We must come together as a country to heal and find a common path forward," he tweeted.
U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner, D-Va., called the suspension "an overdue step."
"But it's important to remember, this is much bigger than one person. It's about an entire ecosystem that allows misinformation and hate to spread and fester unchecked," he tweeted.
Throughout his presidency, social media companies have wrestled with how to moderate one of their most popular and powerful users.
Time and again, Trump tested the boundaries of what he could say, violating the company's rules against election misinformation, glorifying violence and falsehoods about COVID-19. But with Twitter's broader deference to world leaders, Trump has had latitude not afforded ordinary citizens.
In 2017, Trump called North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un "Little Rocket Man" and wrote that North Korea "won't be around much longer." The menacing remark prompted calls for Twitter to block the tweet.
Twitter developed a policy of placing warning labels on tweets that violated the rules but were too newsworthy to be taken down. It also blocks users from liking and commenting on them.
Axios' Jonathan Swan reported Friday that Trump has said over the past few years that he considers his voice on social media to be his most powerful weapon.
Even before Friday's suspension, Trump faced a possible ban after he leaves office on Jan. 20 and loses his protected status as a world leader.
That kid-glove approach angered critics inside and outside the company who warned that Trump's messaging could lead to real-world harm. Since the storming of the Capitol, calls to permanently suspend Trumpfrom civil rights groups, lawmakers and others have intensified.
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Hundreds of Twitter employees demanded in a letter Friday that the company's leaders permanently suspend Trump's account, according to the Washington Post. Employees also asked for an investigation into Twitter's role in the insurrection.
"Twitter encourages an open dialogue between our leadership and employees, and we welcome our employees expressing their thoughts and concerns in whichever manner feels right to them," the company said in a statement.
Trump appears in danger of losing his most powerful social media megaphones. Facebook has banned the president for at least two weeks, and possibly indefinitely.
The Daily Beast reported Friday that Facebook "likely" would permanently ban Trump but the decision was "not definite." Facebook could not be immediately reached for comment.
Earlier this week Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company blocked Trump after the president incited supporters to storm the nation's capital.
"We believe the risks of allowing the president to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great," he wrote in a post. Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, has also blocked Trump's ability to post.
The decision to suspend Trump will likely escalate complaints from the political right that the nation's leading social media companies silence conservatives.
Trump's eldest child and campaign surrogate, Donald Trump Jr., tweeted his outrage. "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 wrote. "This is absolute insanity!"
Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley chimed in: "Silencing people, not to mention the President of the US, is what happens in China not our country."
Clay Calvert, director of the Marion B. Brechner First Amendment Project at the University of Florida, says Trump's suspension from Twitter is not a violation of the president's First Amendment free speech rights.
"The First Amendment only protects against censorship by the government and government entities, not by private entities and organizations, such as social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook," he said.
Trump was already facing bans or restrictions on other mainstream social media platforms.
Snapchat on Thursday cut off access to Mr. Trump's Snapchat account. YouTube tightened its election fraud misinformation policy to make it easier to take action against the president for posting falsehoods. Amazon's video-streaming platform Twitch also suspended Trump's account.
"Trump's actions over the last four years, but especially by encouraging the mob to descend on D.C. on Jan. 6," said University of Richmond law professor Carl Tobias, "show that Twitter's ban was overdue."
Contributing: Jordan Culver
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: President Trump permanently banned from Twitter over risk he could incite violence