Twitter Inc. on Friday permanently suspended the account of outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump, citing the risk of "further incitement of violence" following a Capitol Hill takeover attempt by his supporters earlier this week.
"After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them we have permanently suspended the account," Twitter said, referring to his personal account which has 88.7 million followers.
Trump, who has less than two weeks remaining in his term, countered the move by posting a series of now-deleted tweets from his official government account, declaring that he "will not be SILENCED."
"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 said.
The 74-year-old president, who has largely relied on social media platforms to deliver his messages directly to his supporters, was apparently talking about the 74 million votes he won in the Nov. 3 election compared to Democrat Joe Biden's 81 million votes.
Trump also said that he is looking at the possibility of building his own platform.
The latest showdown between Trump and social media platforms started on Wednesday in the wake of the deadly rioting on the Capitol grounds, during which Trump supporters obstructed the democratic process in Congress to certify the election results.
Twitter on Wednesday temporarily locked Trump out of his account, demanding the removal of several tweets that the company said violated its policy.
One of the tweets included Trump's claim that the election was "fraudulent" while another seemed to make excuses for the chaos and the destructive behavior of his supporters.
The company at that time warned that future violations of the Twitter rules would result in "permanent suspension" of Trump's account.
The lock was apparently lifted at one point as the president tweeted Friday morning that he would not attend Biden's inauguration on Jan. 20. But later in the day, the words "Account suspended" showed up on his account.
In a similar move, Facebook Inc. said Thursday that it will block Trump from Facebook and Instagram "indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete."
Trump has called mainstream news media "fake news," insisting that they treat him unfairly.
He once said in an interview that he might not have been able to become president without the help of social media.
"I wouldn't be here if I didn't have social media...And frankly, if I didn't have social media, I'd have no way of getting out my voice," he said.
But he has also grown hostile against companies such as Twitter, slamming them for engaging in what he views as selective online censorship and calling for the need to strip them of their liability protection provided by federal law for content posted by users.
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