The current President of the United States, Donald Trump, has had his Twitter account permanently banned from the platform "due to the risk of further incitement of violence", the company has said.
Referring specifically to the "@realDonaldTrump account" in a statement posted to Twitter's blog site, the company advised that the account had been permanently suspended.
The statement reads in part:
"After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them — specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter — we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence.
"In the context of horrific events this week, we made it clear on Wednesday that additional violations of the Twitter Rules would potentially result in this very course of action. Our public interest framework exists to enable the public to hear from elected officials and world leaders directly. It is built on a principle that the people have a right to hold power to account in the open.
"However, we made it clear going back years that these accounts are not above our rules entirely and cannot use Twitter to incite violence, among other things. We will continue to be transparent around our policies and their enforcement."
Twitter said its decision followed two tweets posted to the account Friday afternoon that would end up being Trump's last.
The tweets, Twitter said, violated its policy against glorification of violence, and, "these two Tweets must be read in the context of broader events in the country and the ways in which the President's statements can be mobilized by different audiences, including to incite violence, as well as in the context of the pattern of behavior from this account in recent weeks."
The first tweeted cited in the statement reads:
“The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!”
The second reads:
“To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.”
You can read the full statement from Twitter here.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg previously announced that Trump had been banned "indefinitely" from Facebook in a statement issued on Thursday, January 7.
Per the Washington Post, in a post made on Thursday, the Facebook founder stated:
"The shocking events of the last 24 hours clearly demonstrate that President Donald Trump intends to use his remaining time in office to undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power to his elected successor, Joe Biden.
"His decision to use his platform to condone rather than condemn the actions of his supporters at the Capitol building has rightly disturbed people in the US and around the world.
"We removed these statements yesterday because we judged that their effect - and likely their intent -- would be to provoke further violence.
"Following the certification of the election results by Congress, the priority for the whole country must now be to ensure that the remaining 13 days and the days after inauguration pass peacefully and in accordance with established democratic norms."
Zuckerberg continued:
"Over the last several years, we have allowed President Trump to use our platform consistent with our own rules, at times removing content or labeling his posts when they violate our policies.
"We did this because we believe that the public has a right to the broadest possible access to political speech, even controversial speech.
"But the current context is now fundamentally different, involving use of our platform to incite violent insurrection against a democratically elected government. We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great.
"Therefore, we are extending the block we have placed on his Facebook and Instagram accounts indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete."
