Trump Says He Is Considering Building His Own Platform After Twitter Ban
President Donald Trump had a reputation for venting out his frustration on those not following his instruction or backing his dubious claims of massive voter fraud via tweets. With Twitter permanently banning his Twitter account, the president suggested on Friday that he may make his own online platform.
Twitter's move came in the wake of a risk of further incitement of violence following hundreds of pro-Trump supporters breaking into the Capital on Wednesday. Following the ban of his personal account, @realDonaldTrump. Trump resorted to using the institutional @POTUS account to send his latest tweets, Reuters reported.
The social media giant moved to permanently suspend Trump's account less than a couple of weeks before his presidency come to an end. Taking to the @POTUS account after Twitter banned his personal account, Trump announced that he and his team are considering the possibility of building their own platform very soon.
Accusing Twitter of restricting free speech, Trump said in a statement that the social media company has teamed up with Democrats and the Radical Left to remove his account from the platform to silence him, as well as the 75,000,000 people who voted for him. Although Twitter is a private company, Trump said it would not exist without the government-backed Section 230.
Trump also criticized key liability protection made available for tech companies, saying he predicted this would happen. The president said his team has been in talks with several other sites, and they will have a big announcement soon, before adding that they are also considering possibilities of creating their own platform soon. The suspension will not keep them silent, he added.
The now-deleted tweets were viewed before they were removed from the page. Bloomberg's Josh Wingrove and other White House reporters got their hands on a copy of the president's statement, with Wingrove sharing it on his Twitter account. Trump's attempt to outmaneuver the ban by using the @WhiteHouse and @POTUS handles will be removed, a spokesperson for Twitter told The Hill.
The spokesperson pointed out that Twitter's ban evasion policy states that any other account used to evade a ban will be subject to suspension. For government accounts such as @POTUS and @WhiteHouse, however, the spokesperson said they will not suspend those accounts but will restrict their use.
Trump announced on Friday that it would permanently suspend his main account, claiming his posts could trigger further incitement of violence. The social media company had previously suspended the president from sharing tweets for 12 hours after the riot in the Capitol on Wednesday.