On January 8th, 2021, President Donald J. Trump Tweeted: “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 mistreated in any way, shape, or form!!!” Shortly after that, he Tweeted: “To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.” Twitter then evaluated the tweets under the guidelines of their Glorification of Violence Policy, a policy that aims to prevent violence’s glorification. As they assessed the Tweets, it was found that: The presidents’ statement that he will not be attending the Inauguration was used to imply that the election was not legitimate, the second Tweet served as an encouragement to those considering violent acts, and his statements that “They will not be disrespected or mistreated in any way, shape or form!!!” was a further indication that he did not plan to accept his losses in the election. Instead, he continued to support and empower the individuals who believed he won the election. It was also discovered that there were potential plans for future armed protests, including a proposed secondary attack on the US Capitol on January 17th, 2021. All of this went into consideration, resulting in Trump being removed from Twitter. Twitters determine that the two Tweets were likely to inspire others to commit violent acts, just as those that took place at the Capitol on January 6th, 2021, two days post the tweets. The @realDonaldTrump account was permanently banned shortly after.
On January 6th, both Facebook and its photo-sharing service, Instagram, suspended Trump for 24 hours after he posted a video telling the mob that breached the Capitol to return home while adding, “We love you, you’re very special.” Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg voiced his opinions on the matter via a post: “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,” Due to concerns, “about the ongoing potential for violence,” the platform YouTube suspended Trumps’ channel for at least a week, and indefinitely disabled comments from his channel. Thousands of videos were removed, several posted by Trump, since they “spread misinformation claiming widespread voter fraud changed the result of the 2020 election.” Snapchat also became concerned with Trump’s account on January 14th, stating that there may be a potential spread of hate speech or violent threats. Twitch followed, banning Trump’s channel indefinitely in response to the Capitol riot.
In response to Trumps’ ban, students and faculty had a lot to say about the events. Ashleigh Ewald (12) stated, “Trump being banned is a wake-up call on how it doesn’t matter who you are, you can still be held accountable, and that social media has its guidelines. The President being banned from social media is scary in general because social media gives people a voice, and the scariest idea is an American being silenced.” To add on, she stated what a real leader means to her, “Trump could have used his Twitter in a way where he shouldn’t have put parties against each other. His tweets make it clear that if elected, he would only represent those who supported him and aligned with the same party rather than seeing America as a whole not only serve those in your party. Red or blue, we are America, and true leaders know that their words carry so much weight once put out there. Social media is a powerful tool and may misuse it for negative intentions.” Kayla Brown (12) also agreed with Ewald, stating that people in positions of power need to unify their citizens: “I think it was deserved because he was adding fuel to the fire by continuing to spread misinformation and created a divide between people. He could’ve used social media to unify people. Although we have free speech, these platforms still have guidelines that you have to abide by, and if you don’t follow them, your account will be suspended. I’m sure it’s in the terms and conditions that no one reads.” From the criminal acts that have occurred recently, it is clear that these events could have been avoided. There’s a line between sharing your opinions and outright spreading false information, and it was no doubt that Donald Trump crossed that line.