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Twitter permanently suspends Donald Trump’s account

Twitter has permanently suspended US President Donald Trump’s account due to the “risk of further incitement of violence”.

“After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence,” the company said in a tweet on Friday.

On Wednesday (local time), Twitter temporarily blocked Mr Trump’s account, which had more than 88 million followers, following the siege of Capitol Hill by pro-Trump protesters.

Mr Trump’s account had already been temporarily suspended prior to the move.

At the time Twitter warned additional violations by the President’s accounts would result in a permanent suspension.

Mr Trump said he will look at building his own platform after Twitter’s move.

Mr Trump sent the latest tweets on his @POTUS account after Twitter banned his personal account.

Twitter deleted the new tweets from Mr Trump’s @POTUS account.

The White House did not immediately comment.

In a lengthy explanation posted on its blog Friday, Twitter said recent Trump tweets amounted to glorification of violence when read in the context of the Capitol riot and plans circulating online for future armed protests around the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden on January 20.

In those tweets, Mr Trump stated he will not be attending the inauguration and referred to his supporters as “American Patriots,” saying they will have “a GIANT VOICE long into the future”.

Twitter said these statements “are likely to inspire others to replicate the violent acts that took place on January 6, 2021, and that there are multiple indicators that they are being received and understood as encouragement to do so”.

The decision follows calls by senior Democrats to have Mr Trump removed from office over his supporters’ violent occupation of the US Capitol.

The President, who later referred those responsible as “very special” and continued to repeat baseless claims about election fraud, has been widely accused of inciting the violence, including by members of his own party.

Five people died in the riot, including Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, whose death is now the subject of a homicide investigation.

Just hours after pro-Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat temporarily locked Mr Trump’s accounts for policy violations.

-with agencies

Topics: Donald Trump
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