By akademiotoelektronik, 26/08/2022

Twitter suspends "indefinitely" the account of Donald Trump

The noose tightens on Donald Trump, ousted from social networks one after the other: Twitter, his main communication tool, suspended his account permanently on Friday, two days after the riots of his supporters who invaded the Capitol duringmany hours.

""""After in -depth examination of the recent tweets of @realdonaldtrump and the current context - in particular how they are interpreted (...) - We suspended the account indefinitely because of the risk of new incentives for violence """"on the part of the outgoing American president, the company said in a press release.

Thursday, Facebook and other services like Snapchat or Twitch also suspended the profile of the White House tenant for an indefinite period.

But with more than 88 million subscribers, Twitter is Donald Trump's favorite platform, the one that serves him to make political ads, filinous against the media or insult her opponents on a daily basis.

""""We will not be silenced,"""" protested the person concerned via the official Potus account (President of the United States), for the """"75 million patriots"""" who voted for him.

Donald Trump menace Twitter de """"représailles""""

He raised reprisals against the network which """"prohibits freedom of expression"""" and the possible launch of his own platform in the near future, through a series of messages immediately withdrawn by Twitter.

""""Using another account to avoid suspension is against our rules,"""" said a company spokesperson, who will also take measures """"to imitate the use"""" of government accounts like @potus and @whitehouse.

The chirping network had already climbed the retaliatory measures on Wednesday, removing several messages from the Head of State, instead of simply masking them with warning notes.

Risks of new riots

The Republican has not ceased to challenge the validity of the presidential election, and to encourage his fans to intervene, therefore breaking the rules of the main platforms on respect for democratic processes.

Twitter had then suspended his account for twelve hours before reactivating it Thursday, to everyone's surprise, because the president is kept largely responsible for the riots that shocked the country and abroad.

""""Our public interest rules exist to allow people to hear directly what elected officials and political leaders have to say,"""" Californian company detailed on Friday.""""However, we have made it clear for years that these accounts were not entirely above our rules, and that they cannot use Twitter to encourage violence, among other things.""""

Before his account is closed, Donald Trump finally recognized his defeat in a video message.Then he declared that he would not assist, contrary to tradition, at the inauguration ceremony of his successor, Democrat Joe Biden.

According to Twitter, this announcement is interpreted by some of its supporters as proof of the illegitimacy of the electoral results, and makes the event a perfect target for new riots.

""""Des plans pour de futures manifestations armées prolifèrent sur Twitter et ailleurs, y compris pour une deuxième attaque du Capitole le 17 janvier 2021"""", relève la plateforme.

A little earlier on Friday, she had already deleted support from Donald Trump who maintained the theories of the conspiracy of the supremacist movement Qanon.

Too late

Critics have multiplied all week against networks, deemed too slow or too lax.

An increasing number of personalities and organizations have called to ban the billionaire of platforms, from Michelle Obama to the union of Google employees (for YouTube, where Donald Trump's account is still active).

The decisions of Facebook and Twitter, long awaited, were also welcomed with more anger and contempt than relief.

""""Quand Twitter et d'autres agissent maintenant, c'est comme tous ces hauts responsables du gouvernement qui démissionnent à quelques jours de la fin (du mandat) : c'est trop peu, trop tard"""", a regretté Angelo Carusone, président de l'ONG Media Matters for America.

""""If they had acted earlier, the horrible events on Wednesday could have been avoided.""""

But in addition to the support of the president, who accuse social networks of censor him on the basis of their prejudices, votes have been raised to the left to warn against possible achievement of freedom of expression.

""""Nous comprenons le désir de suspendre (le président), mais tout le monde devrait s'inquiéter quand ces entreprises ont le pouvoir de retirer des personnes de leurs plateformes qui sont devenues indispensables à l'expression de milliards d'individus"""", a commenté Kate Ruane de la puissante association de défense des droits civiques ACLU.

Julie Jammot, AFP

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