Twitter permanently suspends @realDonaldTrump account

Twitter has a policy where it verifies debatable tweets. That is, the company, in its blog of Twitter rules states "We assess reported Tweets from world leaders against the Twitter Rules. These ensure that people can participate in the public conversation freely and safely. We focus on the language of reported Tweets and do not attempt to determine all potential interpretations of the content or its intent."

This simply means that even world leaders cannot speak "whatever they want" on Twitter. They will, further, have to "mind their language" and indulge in quality conversation and not inciting harm or violence. Clearly, Donald Trump's Twitter account is full of outrageous tweets. Thus, Twitter said that two of the president's tweets violated its policy against the glorification of violence. Thus, it has suspended the US Prez Trump's account. The account has more than 88 million followers.

What happened?

On January 8, 2021, President Donald J. Trump tweeted:

“The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!”

Shortly thereafter, the President tweeted:

“To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.”

Thus, Twitter stated, "Due to the ongoing tensions in the United States, and an uptick in the global conversation in regards to the people who violently stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, these two Tweets must be read in the context of broader events in the country and how the President’s statements can be mobilized by different audiences, including to incite violence, as well as in the context of the pattern of behaviour from this account in recent weeks.

It even tweeted the same.

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.https://t.co/CBpE1I6j8Y

— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) January 8, 2021

What's happening?

The move has sparked an open-ended debate. The conversations have no tipping point, but we can see a trend "Thank You Twitter" on the app. Further, many Trump supporters have called the move as curbing Freedom of Speech. On the other hand, many have applauded the move in the view that they put public safety and the country above "business profits".

Read More: If they can ban the globe’s most powerful man, what about you?

What are other social media apps doing?

Reddit has also blocked the subreddit r/DonaldTrump. The forum is the largest political communities in support of Trump. Twitch and Snapchat have disabled Trump’s accounts, while Instagram has also banned Trump for at least the next two weeks. YouTube and TikTok have also taken action. Further, Trump has now moved onto LinkedIn to voice his opinions.

While India stands more or less unaffected with the move, many Indian and Global leaders including Arvind Krishnan, Tim Cook, Sundar Pichai etc have condemned Trump's tweets and the inefficiency and non-tolerance of the government and its supporters. How other tech giants response to the situation, we are still to look at that.