Twitter has locked the account of incumbent US President Donald Trump in the wake of the violence at Capitol Hill in Washington DC. The social media giant said that his account has been locked for 12 hours and any future violation of its “Civic Integrity or Violent Threats policies” will lead to a suspension.
In its policy statement, Twitter said, “Any attempts to undermine the integrity of our service is antithetical to our fundamental rights and undermines the core tenets of freedom of expression, the value upon which our company is based.”
“We believe we have a responsibility to protect the integrity of those conversations from interference and manipulation. Therefore, we prohibit attempts to use our services to manipulate or disrupt civic processes, including through the distribution of false or misleading information about the procedures or circumstances around participation in a civic process,” the statement added.
Washington DC had erupted in chaos after supporters of Donald Trump stormed Capitol Hill and breached its premises. Capitol Hill is the seat of the US Senate and the House of Representatives. Protesters had entered House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office as well.
Moreover, one woman was shot by law enforcement authorities during the chaos. She is reported to have lost her life. Also, pipe bombs were found at the Republican National Committee’s headquarters. They were detonated after the staff was evacuated.
Donald Trump has addressed his supporters and asked them to go home. However, he continued to maintain that the presidential elections of 2020 were “fraudulent” and “stolen” even as he urged his supporters to “go home in peace”. He emphasized peace and law and order in his message. Twitter had limited the reach of the appeal and Facebook had removed it citing risk of violence.
