Outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump has slammed Twitter for permanently suspending him , vowing that he and his support base would not be silenced.
The unprecedented move by the California-based microblogging site on Friday comes after Mr. Trump tweeted that he would not attend the inauguration of his successor Joe Biden on January 20.
“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,” Twitter said in a statement.
At the time of permanent suspension, Mr. Trump had 88.7 million followers and followed 51 people.
In a statement hours after he was banned, Mr. Trump said: “I predicted this would happen. We have been negotiating with various other sites, and will have a big announcement soon, while we also look at the possibilities of building out our own platform in the near future. We will not be SILENCED!”
“Twitter is not about FREE SPEECH. They are all about promoting a Radical Left platform where some of the most vicious people in the world are allowed to speak freely. STAY TUNED!” he said, indicating some announcements in this regard is forthcoming.
“As I have been saying for a long time, Twitter has gone further and further in banning free speech, and tonight, Twitter employees have coordinated with the Democrats and the Radical Left in removing my account from their platform, to silence me — and YOU, the 75,000,000 great patriots who voted for me,” he added.
“Twitter may be a private company, but without the government's gift of Section 230 they would not exist for long,” Mr. Trump said.
Reuters adds:
Twitter deletes new Trump tweets on @POTUS, suspends campaign account
Twitter Inc deleted new tweets posted by Mr. Trump on official government account @POTUS and suspended the account of his presidential campaign, after booting his personal account off the platform permanently.
Mr. Trump tweeted "We will not be SILENCED!" from the @POTUS government account, with 33.4 million followers.
The company said accounts used by Mr. Trump to try to get around the ban could face permanent suspension as well under its "ban evasion" policies.
"Twitter is not about FREE SPEECH," Mr. Trump wrote in the now-deleted tweets, adding that he is considering building his own social media platform in the near future.
Twitter shut down his @TeamTrump campaign account shortly after it sent out a tweet with a "statement from President Trump" accusing Twitter of "banning free speech" and coordinating with "the Democrats and the Radical Left" to silence him.
