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from the twitter-and-facebook-and-twitch-and-snapchat-and... dept.
Twitter permanently suspends Trump's account:
US President Donald Trump has been permanently suspended from Twitter "due to the risk of further incitement of violence", the company says.
Twitter said the decision was made "after close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them".
Mr Trump had earlier been locked out of his account for 12 hours.
Twitter then said that it would ban Mr Trump "permanently" if he breached the platform's rules again.
Reacting to the permanent ban, Trump 2020 campaign adviser Jason Miller tweeted: "Disgusting... if you don't think they're coming for you next, you're wrong."
It comes after Mr Trump tweeted several messages on Wednesday, calling the people who stormed the US Capitol "patriots".
Hundreds of his supporters entered the Capitol building as the US Congress attempted to certify Joe Biden's victory in the presidential election. The ensuing violence led to the deaths of four civilians and a police officer.
The siege took place just hours after Trump addressed supporters and told them: "We will never give up; we will never concede."
[...] On Thursday, Facebook said it had suspended Mr Trump "indefinitely". The popular gaming platform Twitch also placed an indefinite ban on the outgoing president's channel, which he has used for rally broadcasts. So has Snapchat.
Two online Trump memorabilia stores were closed this week by e-commerce company Shopify. On Friday, Reddit banned its "donaldtrump" forum for the president's supporters.
[...] The big question now is, can Trumpism survive without the backing of mainstream media? Or will it simply slip into the shadows of the internet?
(Emphasis retained from original.)
Also at Ars Technica, CNET
Full Twitter explanation at: blog.twitter.com
(Score: 3, Insightful) by srobert on Saturday January 09 2021, @06:09PM (7 children)
Actually I think he did. But even if that were not the case, he certainly neglected his responsibility to stop it. And that alone would justify neutralizing him ASAP.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 09 2021, @10:28PM (6 children)
What do you propose that he could have done to stop it? Once the doors were
kicked inexcuse me opened by the guards, it was too late for him or anyone else to stop, and then he was silenced so he couldn't respond. Yes, those who illegally entered the Capitol building should be prosecuted, and the ringleaders, Zip Tie guy, pipe bomb/molotov person should all be facing hard time, but Trump (and damn you for making me defend him) was repeatedly calling for a peaceful protest, which he and his followers had every right to do. Even of the group entering, only a few were set on violence. The rest appear to have been invited in by Capitol security. The whole thing smells like a set-up, and if so then it went perfectly.(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 09 2021, @11:19PM (2 children)
He could have *immediately* called out the National Guard to support the Capitol Police [newsweek.com].
He could have gone on TV and Twitter to *strongly* denounce the riots and violence. Instead, we got weak sauce and "We love you" as the message to the insurrectionists.
He could have done any number of things. But he did not.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 10 2021, @01:00AM (1 child)
He did denounce it. The problem is that the TV networks like CNN didn't mention that and so you just assume it didn't happen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V47UfRDpdk [youtube.com]
"He could have gone on TV"
Trump can't force the TV networks to carry his message.
Yes, CNN could argue he could have done more to call in the national guard sooner. I won't necessarily disagree with that. He could have done more to stop the destruction and property damage and violence done during the BLM protests as well. There is an argument to be made there. It's dishonest for CNN to conflate claiming that the elections were stolen with inciting violence.
"and Twitter"
As others have mentioned, one of the biggest mistakes Trump made was relying on a third party private media platform to carry out his message. That's ridiculous. Politicians shouldn't be beholden to any private media (including Fox or CNN), the government should have its own media outlets that politicians can freely use. Sure Fox and CNN can still exist but perhaps they should exist alongside a government media. In fact I would almost go as far as to say that broadcasting monopolies shouldn't be 'owned' by private entities and cable companies that carry private media should also be required to carry government sponsored/funded media (the government can fund it). Kinda like how other countries have BBC as well. You are free to have private media (the government can't control all the media) but the government should also have its own freely available, publicly funded, media that everyone has access to.
There is CSPAN (which is relatively neutral) but that's on cable. The problem with CSPAN is that it's not sensationalized and people want entertainment (the problem is with what people want).
The media wants to polarize us and they need someone to villainize because that's what gets ratings. Unfortunately when you villanize people you disenfranchise them and they may react negatively. Of course this is great for the media because it gets even more viewership and ratings.
The real villeins here are the media.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 10 2021, @02:05AM
It was really weak sauce. CSPAN showed Trump's video that he posted to Twitter (at around 4PM on Wednesday) and Trump was very vague and said "go in peace" and "respect law and order" while most of the video was him complaining about the election being stolen "from me, from you, from the country" and blaming fraud and the "other side" for massive fraud. And he ended this rambling with "we love you." But don't take it from me. Hear it from the jackass' mouth:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AeI6Mv0ALg [youtube.com]
I'd add that this was posted *hours* after the rioting started and it was clear that the coup wasn't going to succeed. IIRC, CSPAN and other outlets had already reported that the members of Congress and the electoral vote certificates had been safely removed before the insurrectionists could get to them.
So no. He didn't do the right thing. Even Mike Pence did much better when he tweeted:
and then followed it up with:
Note that the above isn't spin from the media, nor is it some sort of Democratic plot. It's what each person said. See for yourself.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 10 2021, @01:19AM (2 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 10 2021, @12:26PM (1 child)
But the private media is not required to carry his message.
Something is wrong when public servants must have their message filtered through private media to get to the people. This model needs to change. People should have free (as in not have to subscribe to cable or other service that costs money) access to what the government and politicians have to say. The government can pay for it, I have no problems with this.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 10 2021, @10:41PM
They know this, it is just to further their mUh ViCtImHoOd narrative.