Pascal Oparada
After being suspended by Twitter on Wednesday for what the social media site termed inciting tweets by Trump, the president of the United States was allowed back onto the platform on Thursday.
His brief ban did little to stop him from unleashing further tirades on the platform.
Shortly after he was handed back his account, Trump tweeted what the microblogging site called inciting comments.
The first was that his 75 million supporters who voted for him would rise and not be silenced.
“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!!!”, the tweet said.
Twitter said it termed this as an incitement to further violence, the kind that rocked the country’s Capitol on Wednesday.
Another tweet was the one the president released on Friday saying he won’t be attending Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20.
“To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.”
Twitter said the tweet could be interpreted to mean that his absence at the inauguration is a message to his supporters that the venue is safe for an attack.
“President Trump’s statement that he will not be attending the Inauguration is being received by a number of his supporters as further confirmation that the election was not legitimate and is seen as him disavowing his previous claim made via two Tweets (1, 2) by his Deputy Chief of Staff, Dan Scavino, that there would be an “orderly transition” on January 20th,” Twitter said in a blog post.
Twitter rules say that prominent people who are politically exposed persons would be allowed the use of the social media space to put across their thoughts which also allows the people to hold them to account. But Twitter said it does not mean that those individuals are above its rules.
“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,” Twitter said, explaining the reason for the ban.
Before the events that led to his permanent ouster from Twitter, It has been strongly speculated that Trump could lose his account after he leaves office. Not many had envisaged that he would be permanently stopped from using the platform that he has utilized to stoke hatred, insults and incite Americans against each other and the world.
