Twitter employee who deactivated Trump's account 'was a contractor'

More information emerging about how account was deactivated

Donald Trump used his @realdonaldtrump Twitter account, seen here on July 11, 2017, to tweet his criticism of UK Prime Minister Theresa May (@realDonaldTrump/Handout via REUTERS)

The Twitter employee who temporarily deactivated Donald Trump’s account was reportedly a contractor.

After @realdonaldtrump’s 11-minute Twitter hiatus ended, Twitter attributed the deactivation to “a Twitter customer support employee who did this on the employee’s last day” and said it was conducting a full investigation.

But according to the New York Times, the person responsible was not a full-time employee but a third-party contractor - a revelation that seems likely to amplify questions about how Twitter allowed one of the world’ most prominent accounts to be taken down.

The company did not respond to questions from The Independent about which of its employees have the authority to deactivate accounts.

According to the New York Times report, hundreds of people at Twitter have access to the accounts of important figures.

The dominant social media platform has faced regular questions about its guidelines for suspending or permanently dissolving accounts - including after North Korea called Mr Trump’s bellicose tweets a declaration of war.

In response, Twitter said that the guidelines it applies for suspensions include whether something is newsworthy or of public interest.

In recent months Twitter also updated its rules for cracking down on violence and sexual abuse, expanding the categories of salacious tweets that can incur punishment and announcing that it would crack down on content glorifying violence. Critics argue that the site is slow to remove abusive accounts.