Trump’s digital director has Twitter account suspended
'We will not be SILENCED!' Trump wrote
When President Donald Trump attempted to tweet from the account of his campaign’s digital director, Gary Coby, after his own Twitter account was suspended, Twitter decided to suspend Coby’s account as well.
Trump appeared to have changed the name on Coby’s account to “Donald J. Trump,” and changed the profile picture to a photo of himself. He left @GaryCoby as the username.
He tweeted to White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications Dan Scavino, “@danscavino: Texting you my Twitter login. I already updated the profile pic, name, etc. Feel free to use!”
Twitter immediately suspended the account.
Read More: ‘He’s on his own’: Some Republicans begin to flee from Trump
Twitter suspended Trump’s account @realDonaldTrump on Friday following the incident of pro-Trump supporters storming the U.S. Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. in protest of the certification of the electoral college votes confirming Joe Biden’s win.
Five people are dead following the protests including a woman who was shot and killed by a U.S. Capitol Police officer after the forced entry from multiple individuals who “attempted to gain access to the House room, which was still in session,” according to Robert Contee, chief of the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia.
Trump attempted to tweet from the official @POTUS account despite the ban but those tweets were later removed. According to Reuters, Trump looks to create his own platform.
“As I have been saying for a long time, Twitter has gone further and further in banning free speech, and tonight, Twitter employees have coordinated with the Democrats and the Radical Left in removing my account from their platform, to silence me — and YOU, the 75,000,000 great patriots who voted for me…” he tweeted.
“I predicted this would happen. We have been negotiating with various other sites, and will have a big announcement soon, while we also look at the possibilities of building out our own platform in the near future … We will not be SILENCED!”
Twitter issued a statement on Friday on their blog, detailing the site’s decision to permanently suspend the account “due to the risk of further incitement of violence.” The blog noted the number of factors including plans for future armed protests that may take place near the U.S. Capitol and state capitol buildings on Jan. 17, three days before the inauguration.
Read More: Rioters who stormed US Capitol now face backlash at work
“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,” Twitter said in the statement. “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.”
The statement continued, “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.”
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