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upstart [soylentnews.org] writes in with an IRC submission for Bytram:

== Nexus: Politics ==

Twitter permanently suspends Trump's account [bbc.com]:

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."

• Americans 'shocked' and 'disgusted' by riots [bbc.co.uk]
• Questions mount over security failure [bbc.co.uk]
• A visual guide to the Congress riots [bbc.co.uk]
• Democrats plan impeachment [bbc.co.uk]

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.

Donald Trump loves being on Twitter, it's his primary way of getting his message out.

He likes the short format, he likes his ability to reach tens of millions of people at the click of a button - bypassing the media.

The fact that Twitter's decision was made 48 hours after the rioting at the Capitol on Wednesday shows that this was not an easy move for the social media giant.

The platform has benefited hugely from Mr Trump's participation, it has been the place to go to hear the latest from the most powerful man in the world.

But Twitter has acted for a number of reasons. It says it's because of the likelihood of him inciting violence in the future.

But it's also because his power is very quickly slipping away. He is now being treated like an ordinary member of the public.

And as mere mortal, repeatedly spreading disinformation, fake news and inciting violence will get you thrown off mainstream social media platforms.

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?

Twitter wrote in a blog post on Friday [twitter.com]: "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.

"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."

It added: "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."

Earlier on Friday, the company permanently banned two Trump loyalists: former national security adviser Michael Flynn and attorney Sidney Powell.

Some 350 Twitter employees had signed a letter this week to the company chief executive, Jack Dorsey, asking him to ban the president in the wake of the Capitol riot.

The letter said: "Despite our efforts to serve the public conversation, as Trump's megaphone, we helped fuel the deadly events of January 6th."

Twitter first took action against Mr Trump in May 2020 appending fact-checks to tweets he sent claiming postal votes were fraudulent.

Later that same week it posted a warning label when the president threatened to send in the military to quell Black Lives Matter protests as he added, "when the looting, starts the shooting starts".

Twitter used these fact-checks and warning labels increasingly throughout the year for Trump tweets about coronavirus and the presidential election.

Some lawmakers and celebrities have meanwhile been calling on Twitter to ban Mr Trump altogether from his favourite medium for reaching his 88 million followers..

On Thursday, former First Lady Michelle Obama tweeted that the Silicon Valley giants should stop enabling Mr Trump's "monstrous behaviour" and permanently expel him from their platforms.

• Twitter [bbc.com]
• Donald Trump [bbc.com]
• US Capitol riots [bbc.com]
• Social media [bbc.com]

Also at

Full twitter explanation ar:

Also at Ars Technica [arstechnica.com], CNET [cnet.com], blog.twitter.com [twitter.com]

Original Submission