Trump deletes the three offending tweets that saw his account blocked, Twitter says

Twitter has threatened to permanently block Trump’s account if he violates their civic integrity policy again

Trump supporters who stormed into the Capitol on 6 January (Reuters)

Donald Trump has deleted the three offending tweets that saw him temporarily lose access to his Twitter account, the social media site has confirmed, and the president’s access will be restored after a 12-hour suspension period.

The platform, which has become Mr Trump’s go-to medium to bypass TV stations and newspapers to speak to his base, had temporarily suspended his account and threatened a permanent ban after the president repeated unsubstantiated claims about voter fraud even as his supporters ran riot in the US Capitol.

Called upon to order a stop to the violence, Mr Trump shared a video where he did indeed ask those at the Capitol to “go home” – but he also again claimed to have won the election by a landslide, and that he “loved” the rioters.

In another tweet, Mr Trump called the rioters “great patriots” and asked his followers to “remember this day forever!”.

The tweets were initially flagged with a notice that said they could not be shared or commented on because they breached rules about inciting violence. Subsequently, Twitter suspended Mr Trump from posting new tweets, and said he risked losing the account altogether if he did not delete several offending tweets.

A Twitter spokesperson confirmed early on Thursday that Mr Trump had indeed deleted the three tweets, as a result of which he will again be able to tweet after a 12-hour suspension period expires, reported Bloomberg News.

Twitter also said it could permanently block Mr Trump’s account if he again violates their civic integrity policy.  

Twitter said it took the action against Mr Trump on Wednesday as a result of the “unprecedented and ongoing violent situation in Washington, DC".

Twitter had noted that its “public interest policy - which has guided our enforcement action in this area for years - ends where we believe the risk of harm is higher and/or more severe.” It was referring to its policy regarding world leaders which allowed Donald Trump to continue tweeting about election fraud or making other misleading claims that would have got an ordinary user suspended.

“We’ll continue to evaluate the situation in real time, including examining activity on the ground and statements made off Twitter. We will keep the public informed, including if further escalation in our enforcement approach is necessary,” said Twitter.

The social media platform has been under severe criticism for failing to check repeated violations by Donald Trump.  

Alex Holmes, who is a member of Twitter's global trust and safety council, had also supported the call for suspending Donald Trump’s account.  

He noted that he agrees with the charge that the president used Twitter to incite violence for days and revealed that the issue “has been raised in past with senior team [by] many members!"

“This account needs deactivating [Jack]. [Twitter Safety] needs to reduce risk and offline harm as per your rules, responsibility and duty. Heard from many of trust and safety council who think same this evening. Now is the time to act!” Mr Holmes had tweeted.

Similar to Twitter, other social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube also took action against Mr Trump’s video where he continued to claim that elections were fraudulent.  

In December 2020, Twitter had confirmed that Mr Trump could be banned after 20 January if he continues to spread conspiracy theories when he no longer will be the US president.