TOPLINE Twitter’s shares plunged 7% in pre-market trading on Monday after the platform permanently suspended President Donald Trump’s account Friday — Twitter was one of several sites to deplatform the president for his role in inciting violence among supporters Wednesday, including Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat.
KEY FACTS
After a review of Trump’s recent tweets, Twitter said it felt there was a “risk of further incitement of violence” from the president, who at the time was one of the most followed people on the platform.
The company then virtually chased Trump across the internet to take down posts as the president repeatedly tried to subvert the ban and tweet from other accounts he had access to, such as the official presidential @POTUS account and his presidential campaign account.
The president claimed he would set up his own social media network in the future.
Twitter also cracked down on the accounts of a number of Trump’s supporters who were encouraging violence and spreading misinformation, like lawyer L. Lin Wood who suggested the Wednesday insurrection was a coup “staged” by antifa protesters and described Vice President Mike Pence as a traitor and communist.
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KEY BACKGROUND
After years of pressure to crack down on misinformation, conspiracy and hate speech from Trump, platforms are now abandoning him in droves after the president incited violence among his supporters Wednesday. Of these, Twitter is the most consequential. Twitter was Trump’s preferred way of engaging with the world around him and the president used the platform for everything from announcing policies and denouncing detractors to spreading hate, misinformation and lies. Trump’s communications channels are certainly narrowing — Facebook also banned the president and right wing app Parler has been practically run off the internet.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR
Twitter and San Francisco police are reportedly preparing for a pro-Trump protest outside the company’s headquarters on Monday in the wake of the ban.
BIG NUMBER
88 million. That’s how many Twitter followers Trump had when his account was suspended. This made him one of the most followed on the platform.
FURTHER READING
All the platforms that have banned or restricted Trump so far (Axios)
-By Robert Hart, Forbes Staff
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