Twitter permanently removed President Donald Trump from its platform Friday, citing repeated violations of Twitter’s terms of service and the risk he would further incite violence ahead of Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20. The ban came a day after Trump posted this video message to his Twitter feed.
President Donald Trump: “To all of my wonderful supporters: I know you are disappointed, but I also want you to know that our incredible journey is only just beginning.”
Twitter’s move to permanently ban Trump came amid a wave of suspensions and bans from other social media sites, including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Reddit, Snapchat and Shopify.
Meanwhile, Apple, Google and Amazon Web Services ended their support for the social media network Parler over the weekend, which bills itself as Twitter without rules. The companies say Parler’s managers have consistently failed to halt threats of violence and calls for armed insurrection on the site. Parler was co-founded by Republican donor and Trump supporter Rebekah Mercer, daughter of hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer.
And in another move from Big Tech, the payment processing company Stripe cut ties with the Trump campaign, which has continued to fundraise, saying it violated its policies against encouraging violence.