Twitter announced a 12-hour lock on President Donald Trump’s account Wednesday after deleting a series of posts the company said violated its Civic Integrity policy amid a historic moment of political unrest breaking out in the nation’s capital.
“As a result of the unprecedented and ongoing violent situation in Washington, D.C., we have required the removal of three @realDonaldTrump tweets that were posted earlier today for repeated and severe violations of our Civic Integrity policy,” Twitter wrote in a statement. “This means that the account of @realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours following the removal of these Tweets. If the Tweets are not removed, the account will remain locked.”
This means that the account of @realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours following the removal of these Tweets. If the Tweets are not removed, the account will remain locked.
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) January 7, 2021
The company then went further, declaring the Silicon Valley tech giant — which had already censored the president and affiliated campaign accounts at least 65 times over two years without censoring former Vice President Joe Biden once — is prepared to permanently kick the president off the platform for posts not even published yet.
“Future violations of the Twitter Rules, including our Civic Integrity or Violent Threats policies, will result in permanent suspension of the @realDonaldTrump account,” the company wrote.
Our public interest policy — which has guided our enforcement action in this area for years — ends where we believe the risk of harm is higher and/or more severe.
https://t.co/ZcbhDEAYjH— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) January 7, 2021
Twitter took it a step further, saying it would even take “statements made off Twitter” into consideration.
“We’ll continue to evaluate the situation in real time, including examining activity on the ground and statements made off Twitter,” said the tech giant, which currently enjoys protections from Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act for ostensibly being a platform rather than a publisher. It’s recent censorship, however, such as of the New York Post bombshell report of Hunter Biden’s laptop, has demonstrated the company’s habitual viewpoint discrimination. “We will keep the public informed, including if further escalation in our enforcement approach is necessary,” it continued.
We’ll continue 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 Safety (@TwitterSafety) January 7, 2021
The announcement comes on the heels of the company barring users from amplifying Trump’s calls to calm his supporters swarming the Capitol with retweets, likes, or replies. The video featuring the president telling his supporters to “go home now” appears to have been removed from the platform entirely.
“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,” Trump said in brief message from the White House.
ADDED LATER: Here is a full transcript of Trump’s statement in this banned video:
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 see what happens, you see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil, I know how you feel, but go home, and go home in peace.
Twitter did not specify which rules within its Civic Integrity guidelines the president had violated. The California company did not immediately respond to The Federalist’s request for comment.
Giving Trump the boot on Twitter had long been a top policy item on the agenda of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, who launched a crusade during the Democratic primaries in 2019. A former Harris spokesman is now one of the company’s top communications officers.
Facebook also announced it would be removing photos and videos illustrating Wednesday’s riot, claiming such content promoted criminal activity. No such widespread censorship was employed of the left-wing Antifa riots last year, where reporters stood in front of burning buildings and called the demonstrations “mostly peaceful.”
Facebook says it will now remove all photos and videos posted from the protest because at this point they are promoting criminal activity https://t.co/vmctsVZJ27 pic.twitter.com/xzw63z4Q9H
— Sarah Frier (@sarahfrier) January 7, 2021
