Twitter Preparing to BAN Donald Trump After January

Jack Dorsey’s company says they have plans in place to potentially ban Trump in January, as he will then lose the protections that Twitter offers to world leaders.

The change will expose Trump to being strictly moderated by the platform and likely banned if he continues to disseminate what the social giant deems to be “conspiracy theories.” 

Twitter states in its “principles & approach” to world leaders that, “if a Tweet from a world leader does violate the Twitter Rules but there is a clear public interest value to keeping the Tweet on the service, we may place it behind a notice that provides context about the violation and allows people to click through should they wish to see the content.”

On condition of anonymity, a Twitter spokesperson told Forbes last Thursday that, if Joe Biden is inaugurated as president, Trump will lose that stipulation immediately after the ceremony.

Independent.co.uk reports: Mr Trump, meanwhile, has been seeking a repeal of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which, among other things, protects social media platforms from liability for content users post.

Mr Trump, with a following of 88.6 million, is among Twitter’s top 10 accounts. Among politicians, he is only behind former president Barack Obama who has over 125 million followers.  

In comparison, the official Twitter account of the US president [POTUS] has 33.1 million followers. Twitter has already announced that it would hand over the POTUS handle to Mr Biden on 20 January even if Trump refuses to concede.

Throughout his tenure and even during campaigning for the 2016 elections, Mr Trump has used Twitter to bypass traditional media platforms – many of whom he claims are against him – to reach out to his supporters.

Mr Trump’s tweets leading to many controversies even prompted Mr Biden, during his campaign, to tweet in July: “You won’t have to worry about my tweets when I’m president.”

Mr Trump used Twitter’s exemption policy throughout 2020 to spread disputed theories about Covid-19 and also the “Black Lives Matter” protests without the fear of a permanent ban from the platform.

Twitter has several measures to deal with those who violate its rules, including limiting a tweet’s reach and placing temporary restrictions on an account.