Tag: Twitter

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Politics

Twitter Troll Tricked 4,900 Democrats in Vote-by-Telephone Scheme, U.S. Says

Twitter Troll Tricked 4,900 Democrats in Vote-by-Phone Scheme, U.S. Says

A man known as a far-right Twitter troll was arrested on Wednesday and charged with spreading disinformation online that led Democratic voters to vote in 2016 by phone instead of voting.

Prosecutors accused 31-year-old Douglass Mackey of coordinating with co-conspirators to distribute memes on Twitter, falsely claiming that Hillary Clinton’s followers could vote by texting a specific phone number.

As a result of that campaign, prosecutors said, at least 4,900 unique phone numbers sent text messages to cast votes for Ms. Clinton.

Mr. Mackey was arrested Wednesday morning in West Palm Beach, Florida on what appears to be the country’s first criminal case concerning the repression of voters through the spread of disinformation on Twitter. He could not be immediately reached for comment, and an attorney for Mr. Mackey could not be identified immediately.

Ms. Clinton was not named in the complaint, but one person who was informed of the investigation confirmed that she was the presidential candidate described in the indictments.

“With Mackey’s arrest, we are realizing that those who would undermine the democratic process in this way cannot rely on the cloak of internet anonymity to evade responsibility for their crimes,” said Seth DuCharme, incumbent United States Attorney in Brooklyn.

In 2018, it was revealed that Mr. Mackey is the operator of a Twitter account under the pseudonym Ricky Vaughn, which empowered former President Donald J. Trump while spreading anti-Semitic and white nationalist propaganda.

Mr. Mackey’s account had such a large following that it topped the MIT Media Lab’s list of 150 Top Influencers in the 2016 election, ahead of Twitter accounts for NBC News, Drudge Report, and CBS News.

Twitter closed the account in 2016, a month before the election, for violating company rules by “participating in targeted abuse”. At that time, the account had around 58,000 followers.

Mr. Mackey faces an unusual charge: Conspiracy to violate rights, which makes it illegal for people to conspire to “suppress” or intimidate anyone from exercising a constitutional right such as voting.

The indictment provides for a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

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Politics

Kellyanne Conway house visited by police after nude picture of daughter seems on Twitter

Kellyanne Conway home visited by police after nude photo of daughter appears on Twitter

White House Advisor Kellyanne Conway speaks to reporters at the White House in Washington, United States on August 6, 2020.

Cheriss May | Reuters

New Jersey police reportedly visited the home of former Trump White House adviser Kellyanne Conway on Tuesday, the day after her 16-year-old daughter Claudia complained on social media about a topless photo of her that was briefly appeared on her mother’s Twitter account.

“I have no comment,” Kellyanne Conway told CNBC when asked about the police visit and how a photo of her daughter was posted on Twitter Fleet.

The New Jersey Department of Children and Families “is also investigating any concerns related to the incident” involving the Conway family, who live in the town of Alpine, Buzzfeed News reported Tuesday.

DCF informed CNBC that due to confidentiality rules, no pending or other investigations could be confirmed.

The New York Post reported Tuesday that four officers from the Bergen District Attorney’s Office and Alpine Police visited Conway’s home and spent an hour inside before leaving. The Post article contained a photo of the police at home.

Christopher Belcolle, Police Chief of the Alps, told the Post: “An investigation is underway. No additional information can be released.”

Belcolle did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC.

In a statement to NBC News, Bergen County’s Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Rebein said, “We are unable to provide details, but we can confirm that the matter has been referred to our office and that every member of the Conway family has been unreservedly throughout the investigation was cooperative. “

Claudia Conway is a prolific user of the TikTok social media app, where she documented complaints and disputes with her mother.

Kellyanne Conway, who helped lead former President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, served as senior adviser to the White House until August when she resigned. Conway said she wanted to spend more time with her children.

“At the moment and for my beloved children, it will be less drama, more mom,” she said in a statement at the time.

The resignation came after public attention to Claudia Conway’s complaints about Kellyanne and her father George Conway, a Republican attorney who is a staunch Trump critic.

On Monday, Claudia spoke in a TikTok video about a topless photo of herself that was reportedly posted by Kellyanne Conway’s account as Twitter Fleet. Twitter fleets are usually deleted after 24 hours.

The photo was reportedly quickly deleted long before it normally would have been.

A Twitter spokesperson told CNBC, “Through technology and human review, we will proactively remove any images that violate Twitter rules.”

Twitter earlier this month put Trump’s account on hold, saying his tweets risked further violence after thousands of his supporters invaded the U.S. Capitol to overthrow Joe Biden’s election as president.

Claudia Conway warned Kellyanne Conway in the TikTok video on Monday before the photo that she, Kellyanne, could go to jail.

But Claudia said in other TikTok videos posted on Tuesday that she believed her mother’s account had been hacked and that she regretted posting the TikTok video that targeted Kellyanne.

She said she didn’t think her mom posted the picture.

Claudia also said she would take a break from social media to work on her relationship with her mother and the rest of her family.

George Conway tweeted one of his daughter’s videos on Tuesday morning.

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Entertainment

The Official Strolling Useless Twitter Shuts Down Homophobic Followers

The Official Walking Dead Twitter Shuts Down Homophobic Fans

the Walking Dead wants people to know that there is no place for homophobia in fandom after comments have been made on characters by The Walking Dead: World Beyond. During the episode of January 25 of the Talk to me dead Podcast, TWD: world beyond Actor Jelani Alladin discussed LGBTQ + portrayal on the show along with Will’s relationship with Felico by Nico Tortorella.

Alladin’s comments were immediately greeted with hatred by homophobic fans. “I can’t enjoy gay male TV show characters. I’m sorry man, I can’t,” one commented on a YouTube clip of the episode. Others noted that the relationship looked forced, and one YouTube user replied, “I don’t like how every character just has to have a love interest. Oh, we can’t find a character for you, fuck it, you’re gay with it.” Man. Just stop. It’s so wrong just for added emotional drama. ”

the Walking DeadThe Twitter account wasted no time sharing support for Alladin. “If LGBTQ + signs on TV (or anywhere else) make you uncomfortable or angry, please don’t follow us,” the account said. “While we also encourage you to look inward and accept more, know that there is no place in our fandom for hateful discrimination or willful ignorance.” See the full tweet below as well as Alladin’s response.

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Business

Twitter Bars MyPillow C.E.O. Mike Lindell: Stay Enterprise Updates

Mike Lindell, the executive director of MyPillow, helped fund a bus tour promoting Donald J. Trump's false electoral claims.

Here’s what you need to know:

Recognition…Erin Scott / Reuters

Twitter said it had permanently banned Mike Lindell, the CEO of bedding company MyPillow and close ally of former President Donald J. Trump, from his service.

Monday night’s move followed numerous tweets from Mr Lindell promoting debunked conspiracy theories about election fraud.

Mr. Lindell’s Twitter account, which had nearly 413,000 followers, has been permanently banned “for repeated violations of our Civic Integrity Policy,” said Lauren Alexander, a Twitter spokeswoman, in an email.

Corporate America has been quick to try to tone down the allegations made by Mr. Lindell, a major Republican donor and one of the loudest voices supporting Mr. Trump’s claims of electoral fraud in the November 3rd election. Kohl’s and Bed Bath & Beyond removed MyPillow products from their stores last week.

Mr. Lindell is also facing legal action over his allegations of electoral fraud against Dominion Voting Systems, the company at the center of one of the more outlandish conspiracy theories about electoral fraud.

The suspension of his account is the latest in a series of high profile bans on Twitter as the company permanently banned Mr. Trump from service for fears it would use the platform to incite more violence like storming the Capitol this month.

Following the attack on the Capitol, Twitter announced it had updated its rules to more aggressively monitor false or misleading information about the presidential election. As part of this move, Twitter suspended the accounts of more than 70,000 people who promoted content related to QAnon, a pro-Trump fringe group that the FBI has identified as a domestic terrorist threat.

Ms. Yellen is the first woman to hold a top position in the Treasury in her 232-year history.Recognition…Leah Millis / Reuters

The Senate confirmed Janet L. Yellen as Treasury Secretary Monday and put her at the forefront of addressing the fallout from the pandemic while advocating for President Biden’s economic agenda.

Ms. Yellen, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, was sustained by 84 votes to 15, with support from Republicans and Democrats. She is the first woman to hold the top job at Treasury in its 232-year history.

With the confirmation, she will now be in the middle of negotiating a potential $ 1.9 trillion economic aid package, which is the primary mission of Mr. Biden’s efforts to revitalize the economy. The size of the plan has already been questioned by some Democrats and Republicans.

Ms. Yellen was a clear advocate of continued government support to workers and businesses, and publicly warned that a lack of assistance to state and local governments could slow the recovery, much like it did after the great recession.

At her confirmation hearing and in written replies to lawmakers, Ms. Yellen reiterated Mr. Biden’s view that Congress must “act big” to keep the economy from stalling and defended the use of borrowed money to finance another aid package and families worse off.

“The auxiliary bill at the end of last year was just a deposit to get us through the next few months,” said Ms. Yellen. “We still have a long way to go before our economy fully recovers.”

Shoppers wait in front of a GameStop on Black Friday. An online community of traders appears to be driving the store's share price higher.Recognition…Go Nakamura for the New York Times

Little ones win in an epic competition between Wall Street traders betting against stocks and legions of petty investors.

On Monday, shares of ailing video game retailer GameStop rose, adding to a recent rally that rose shares by more than 300 percent in January alone and is a blatant example of the growing power of small investors in certain financial markets.

Stocks of companies like GameStop are breaking away from the factors that traditionally go into evaluating a company’s valuation – like growth potential or earnings. Analysts believe the company will post a loss from continuing operations of $ 465 million in 2020, on top of the $ 795 million it lost in 2019.

What seems to be fueling this surge is an online community of traders who gather in places like Reddit’s “Wall Street Bets” forum and exaggerate individual trades. Lately they have made buying short-term call options on GameStop stock – an aggressive bet that the stock will go up – a preferred position.

Market analysts and scholars say that a rush of new money on such short-term call options can create a kind of feedback loop that drives up underlying stock prices, as brokerage firms selling the options have to buy stocks themselves in order to hedge the contracts.

In the case of GameStop, these small investors have faced a different group of speculators. The company’s struggles have also made it a preferred target for short sellers betting on a stock to fall by selling stocks they don’t actually own. Short sellers benefit when a stock has fallen and they can buy back the same stock at a lower price.

With GameStop stocks rising, these investors are obviously losing a lot of money. And their rush to get out of trading by buying stocks can also result in a price spike known as a short squeeze.

On Monday, Wall Street Bets’s small traders and messaging site Discord encouraged each other to hold onto their positions while the short sellers raced to the exits.

“Am I late to get on the GME missile?” Wrote a Wall Street Bets commentator just after 10am

“No, buy the dip,” answered another.

At Discord, the message was clear.

“GME ONLY UP,” wrote one commentator.

Budweiser's Covid-19 awareness advertisement features two health workers who have been vaccinated.Recognition…Budweiser, via Associated Press

Budweiser, the beer giant whose commercials featuring Clydesdale horses, croaking frogs, and victorious pups made him one of the most popular Super Bowl advertisers, is skipping this year for the first time in 37 years to focus on raising awareness the Covid-19 vaccine.

Budweiser, an Anheuser-Busch company, announced Monday that it would donate portions of its advertising budget this year to the Ad Council, a nonprofit marketing group at the forefront of a $ 50 million commercial blitz to combat skepticism about coronavirus Vaccines. Instead of often posting a zippy big game commercial as it did in the weeks leading up to the game on February 7th, the beer company published its 90-second online vaccination ad entitled “Bigger Picture”. (Anheuser-Busch will continue to have a prominent role throughout the game, with ads for some of his other beer brands.)

Other Super Bowl stalwarts, including Coca-Cola, Hyundai, and Pepsi, will also be absent from the screen. When the pandemic disrupted the sports industry, many companies were reluctant to pay CBS around $ 5.5 million for a 30-second slot during a game that some feared could be delayed or even canceled.

In the Budweiser Covid-19 vaccination advertisement, actress Rashida Jones urges viewers to “turn our strength into hope” while the tune of “Lean on Me” is shown as inspiring images of the pandemic. Ms. Jones, who recorded her narrative while isolated from other people in a Hollywood facility, said in an interview that “obviously people want to be entertained, they want to see funny commercials,” but “the most important thing is that we do this next prioritize phase. “

The Super Bowl advertising season, which typically extends beyond weeks of airing of teasers, celebrity revelations, YouTube debuts, and celebratory live events, is more subdued as companies struggle to find an appropriate tone after a year of marketing missteps to accept.

“You can’t pretend everything is okay,” Ms. Jones said. “People can feel when brands use a moment.”

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Business

Fb and Twitter Face Worldwide Scrutiny After Trump Ban

Facebook and Twitter Face International Scrutiny After Trump Ban

LONDON – In Sri Lanka and Myanmar, Facebook continued to post warnings that they had contributed to the violence. In India, activists have called on the company to fight against positions held by politicians against Muslims. In Ethiopia, groups advocated the social network blocking hate speech after hundreds were killed in ethnic violence on social media.

“The offline problems that rocked the country are fully visible online,” wrote activists, civil society groups and journalists in Ethiopia in an open letter last year.

For years, Facebook and Twitter have rejected calls to remove hate speech or other comments from public figures and government officials that civil society groups and activists have said risk inciting violence. Companies stuck to guidelines, driven by American ideals of free speech, that give such numbers more leeway to use their platforms for communication.

But last week, Facebook and Twitter cut President Trump off their platforms for inciting a crowd to attack the U.S. Capitol. These decisions have angered human rights groups and activists who are now urging companies to apply their policies evenly, especially in smaller countries where platforms dominate communication.

“When I saw what the platforms were doing to Trump, I thought, ‘You should have done this before, and you should have done this consistently in other countries around the world,” said Javier Pallero, Policy Director at Access Now, one Human rights ombudsman group involved in the letter from Ethiopia: “All over the world we are at the mercy if they choose to act.”

“Sometimes they act very late,” he added, “and sometimes they don’t act at all.”

David Kaye, a law professor and former United Nations observer on freedom of expression, said political figures in India, the Philippines, Brazil and elsewhere deserve a review of their online behavior. But he said the actions against Mr. Trump raise difficult questions about how the power of American internet companies is being used and whether their actions set a new precedent for more aggressive police speech around the world.

“The question for the future is whether this is a new type of standard that they want to adopt for executives around the world and whether they have the resources to do so.” Mr. Kaye said. “There will be a real increase in demand to do this elsewhere in the world.”

Facebook, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, is the world’s largest social network with more than 2.7 billion monthly users. More than 90 percent of them live outside the United States. The company declined to comment, but said the actions against Mr Trump are based on his violation of existing rules and do not constitute a new global policy.

“Our guidelines apply to everyone,” said Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, in a recent interview with Reuters. “The policy is that you cannot incite violence, you cannot be part of the incitement to violence.”

Capitol Riot Fallout

Updated

Jan. 17, 2021, 5:21 p.m. ET

Twitter, which has around 190 million users every day around the world, said its rules for world leaders are not new. When reviewing posts that could lead to violence, the context of the events is crucial.

“Offline damage from online speech is proven to be real and most importantly drives our policies and enforcement,” said Jack Dorsey, managing director of Twitter, in a post Wednesday. However, he said the decision “sets a precedent that I consider dangerous: the power an individual or a company has over part of the global public debate.”

There are signs that Facebook and Twitter have started to act more confidently. Following the attack on the Capitol, Twitter updated its policy to permanently ban the accounts of repeat offenders of its political content rules. Facebook has taken action against a number of accounts outside the United States, including the deletion of the account of a state-owned media company in Iran and the closure of government accounts in Uganda, where violence erupted before the elections. Facebook said the shutdowns had nothing to do with the Trump decision.

Many activists have recognized Facebook for its global influence and non-uniform application of rules. They said that in many countries there is a lack of cultural understanding to determine when posts could lead to violence. Too often, they said, Facebook and other social media companies don’t act even when they receive warnings.

In 2019, in Slovakia, Facebook did not cut down on posts by a member of parliament who was convicted by a court and robbed of his seat of government for incitement and racist remarks. In Cambodia, Human Rights Watch said the company was slow to respond to government officials participating in a social media campaign to tarnish a prominent Buddhist monk who campaigned for human rights. In the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte used Facebook to reach journalists and other critics.

After a wave of violence, Ethiopian activists said Facebook was being used to incite violence and promote discrimination.

“The truth is, despite good intentions, these companies do not guarantee uniform application or enforcement of their rules,” said Agustina Del Campo, director of the Center for Freedom of Expression Studies at the University of Palermo in Buenos Aires. “And often they lack context and understanding when they try.”

In many countries, it is believed that Facebook bases its actions on its business interests rather than human rights. In India, home of most of Facebook’s users, the company has been accused of not monitoring anti-Muslim content from political figures for fear of angering the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ruling party.

“The developments in our countries are not being seriously addressed,” said Mishi Choudhary, a technology lawyer and founder of the Software Freedom Law Center, a digital rights group in India. “Any abolition of content raises the question of freedom of expression, but inciting violence or using a platform for dangerous speech is not free speech, it is a question of democracy, law and order.”

But while many activists urged Facebook and Twitter to be more active in protecting human rights, they expressed their anger at the power companies have to control language and influence public opinion.

Some also warned that actions against Mr Trump would provoke a backlash, with political leaders in some countries taking steps to prevent social media companies from censoring the language.

Government officials in France and Germany raised alarm over the ban on Mr Trump’s accounts, questioning whether private corporations should be able to unilaterally silence a democratically elected leader. A draft law that is being examined for the European Union of 27 states would set new rules for the content moderation policy of the largest social networks.

Barbora Bukovská, senior director of law and politics at Article 19, a digital rights group, said the risk is particularly high in countries whose leaders have historically used social media to fuel divisions. She said the events in Washington sparked a bill in Poland by the ruling right-wing nationalist party that would punish social media companies for not removing explicitly illegal content, which could allow for greater targeting of LGBTQ people.

“These decisions about Trump were the right decisions, but there are broader questions that go beyond Trump,” said Ms. Bukovská.

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Business

Twitter Removes Over 70,000 QAnon Accounts

Twitter Removes Over 70,000 QAnon Accounts

SAN FRANCISCO – Twitter announced Monday that it had removed more than 70,000 accounts promoting the QAnon conspiracy theory in the past few days as the company stepped up its crackdown on content that could lead to violence after President Trump had been banned from his service last week.

Twitter, which ran the suspensions over the weekend, said it helped curb posts that “have the potential to cause offline damage”. It added that many of the users that were removed had operated multiple QAnon accounts, which increased the total number of accounts that were removed.

“These accounts dealt with the large-scale sharing of malicious QAnon-associated content and were primarily dedicated to spreading this conspiracy theory throughout the service,” the company said in a blog post.

Social media companies have rushed to distance themselves from the violent mob attack in the Capitol building last week that Mr Trump fueled through social media posts and public comments. After the rampage, Twitter and Facebook suspended Mr. Trump’s accounts before eventually banning him from their duties and turning off the president’s megaphones.

Other social media platforms like Snapchat and Reddit have also made efforts to curb Mr. Trump and toxic speech that could inspire people to be violent in recent days. Facebook and Twitter have since expanded their promotions. On Monday, Facebook announced it was removing content related to “Stop the Steal,” a rally for Trump supporters who believe the false claim that the election was stolen from Mr. Trump.

Twitter said it will also step up its crackdown on misleading and false information about the presidential election. Users who persistently violate the Citizens’ Integrity Policy, which prohibits users from distributing content that hinders voter participation or misleads about the outcome of an election, would be permanently suspended, Twitter said.

The actions of Facebook and Twitter have received praise from liberals and others, but have also raised questions about corporate power over online discourse.

The QAnon conspiracy theory has long been in effect for Mr. Trump. His believers position Mr Trump as a hero who seeks to root out a global elite of pedophiles who worship Satan. One woman, Ashli ​​Babbitt, who broke through the Capitol last week and was shot dead, was a QAnon believer.

While the conspiracy theory has been established online for years, it has only been the past few months that social media companies have relocated to remove related content. In August last year, Facebook began setting guidelines banning QAnon groups inciting violence, before expanding the move in October by stating that it would remove any groups, pages, or Instagram accounts that were openly identified with QAnon.

In July, Twitter banned 7,000 QAnon accounts and blocked topics related to conspiracy theory from appearing in trending topics. But the theories have kept popping up on Twitter and other social media platforms, leading to online harassment and physical violence.

The elimination of tens of thousands of QAnon accounts, coupled with the routine removal of bots and spammers, resulted in noticeable fluctuations in the number of followers for some Twitter users.

This led some users – like former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and a Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz – to speculate that Twitter is covertly cutting them off from their followers because of their political beliefs.

After Twitter banned Mr. Trump from the platform, some of his supporters called for a protest in front of the company’s headquarters in San Francisco on Monday. City workers set up barricades and the police guarded to prevent disturbances. But their preparations were ultimately not necessary: ​​the protest only attracted one participant.

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World News

Twitter bans Michael Flynn, Sidney Powell and different QAnon accounts

Twitter bans Michael Flynn, Sidney Powell and other QAnon accounts

Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter, testifies via videoconference in this screenshot from a video taken during a Senate Judicial Committee hearing titled “Breaking the News: Censorship, Suppression, and the 2020 Election” on Facebook and Twitter regarding the Moderation of content was created on Capitol Hill in Washington, USA, November 17, 2020.

Reuters

Twitter announced on Friday that it was permanently banning accounts for sharing content related to the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory.

As part of this purge, the company suspended the accounts of Michael Flynn and Sidney Powell, supporters of President Donald Trump.

“The accounts have been blocked under our coordinated malicious activity policy,” the company said in a statement to NBC News. “We knew we were going to take strong enforcement measures against behavior that could lead to offline harm, and given the renewed potential for violence associated with this type of behavior in the coming days, we will only permanently lock accounts.” dedicated to sharing QAnon content. “

Former US National Security Advisor Michael Flynn shows as a supporter of US President Donald Trump’s rally to protest election results in front of the Supreme Court building in Washington, USA, on December 12, 2020.

Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

Flynn, a retired Army Lieutenant General and former national security adviser to Trump, was pardoned by Trump in November. He pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents about his conversations with Russia’s ambassador to the United States before Trump was inaugurated four years ago this month. Powell, a lawyer, assisted Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani in rejecting the presidential election results. She made a number of allegations of alleged election fraud, none of which have been recognized as legitimate by a court.

Both Flynn and Powell are active in the QAnon community. Twitter has also banned the account of Ron Watkins, who is the administrator of the 8kun website, formerly known as 8chan.

Attorney Sidney Powell speaks at a press conference on election results in Alpharetta, Georgia, the United States, on Dec. 2, 2020.

Elijah Nouvelage | Reuters

The suspensions come after the riot at the US Capitol on Wednesday.

Twitter’s coordinated malicious activity policy doesn’t allow groups to engage in activities that cause harm on Twitter or in the real world.

Twitter had previously taken action against thousands of QAnon-related accounts in July 2020. Though some accounts involved in the QAnon movement are hard to find, Flynn was a prominent player in the political arena and took an oath to QAnon in July on a publicly available video.

– CNBC’s Dan Mangan contributed to this report.

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Business

Trump’s Twitter Account Completely Suspended

Trump's Twitter Account Permanently Suspended

OAKLAND, Calif. – Twitter announced on Friday that it had permanently suspended President Trump “because of the risk of further incitement to violence”, effectively cutting him off from his favorite megaphone to reach the public and a range of actions to end mainstream sites in order to limit its online reach.

Twitter said in a blog post that Mr. Trump’s personal @ realDonaldTrump account, which has more than 88 million followers, would be banned immediately. The company said two tweets Mr Trump posted on Friday – one calling his supporters “patriots” and another saying he would not go to the President’s inauguration on Jan. 20 – violated its rules against the glorification of violence.

The tweets “most likely encouraged and inspired people to repeat the criminal acts that took place in the US Capitol on January 6, 2021,” said Twitter, referring to the storming of the Capitol by a bunch of Trump loyalists.

Within minutes, Mr. Trump’s Twitter account was no longer accessible. His contributions were replaced by a label: “Account blocked.”

Mr Trump attempted to evade the ban late Friday by using the @POTUS Twitter account owned by the incumbent US president and other accounts to attack the company. But almost all of his messages were removed from Twitter almost immediately. The company prohibits users from avoiding being banned with secondary accounts.

The moves were a staunch rejection of Mr. Trump on Twitter, who had used the platform to build his base and spread his messages, which were often filled with falsehoods and threats. Mr Trump regularly tweeted dozens of times a day and sent a flurry of messages early morning or late evening. In his posts, he gave his live reactions to television news broadcasts, increased supporters, and attacked his perceived enemies.

“Twitter’s permanent suspension of Trump’s Twitter account is long overdue,” said Shannon McGregor, senior researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “This is the most important de-platform for Trump. The inability to tweet prevents his direct access to the press – and thus also to the public. “

In a statement late Friday, Mr Trump said Twitter tried to silence him. He said he was negotiating with other websites and promising a “big announcement soon” adding that he wanted to build “our own platform”.

“Twitter is not about FREE SPEECH,” Trump said. “It’s about promoting a radical left platform where some of the most evil people in the world can speak freely.”

The day before, Facebook had banned Mr. Trump for the remainder of his tenure, and other digital platforms – including Snapchat, YouTube, Twitch, and Reddit – recently restricted Mr. Trump to their services as well.

The actions were a strong example of the power of social media companies and how they could act almost unilaterally if they wanted to. Twitter, Facebook and other platforms had for years positioned themselves as defenders of free speech, saying that the posts of world leaders like Mr. Trump should be allowed because they were current. The companies had refused to touch his account even after being attacked for allowing misinformation and falsehoods.

Twitter decided to permanently suspend Mr Trump due to pressures from lawmakers, his own staff and many others, including Michelle Obama. Other world leaders and leaders have also posted brand tweets asking whether Twitter has come down a slippery slope and needed to close other accounts.

On Friday, the company also permanently suspended the accounts of several prominent Trump supporters who used the platform to spread conspiracy theories, including attorney Sidney Powell and former National Security Advisor to President Trump Michael T. Flynn. Rush Limbaugh, the Conservative talk show host, also appeared to have deactivated his account.

Donald Trump Jr., Mr. Trump’s son, described Twitter’s move against his father as “absolute madness” and said the tech companies were overwhelmed. “We live Orwell’s 1984,” he tweeted.

“Now is the time for Congress to repeal Section 230 and put Big Tech on the same legal footing as any other company in America,” said Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina on Friday.

Economy & Economy

Updated

Jan. 7, 2021, 12:58 p.m. ET

Mr Trump had repeatedly said to allies who had raised the possibility of social media companies banning him, “They will never ban me.”

There was an extensive process in place in the White House for creating official tweets. But at night and early in the morning, Mr. Trump composed his own tweets on his iPhone, often to the chagrin of advisers and Republican lawmakers who would spend hours or days studying the aftermath.

“I wouldn’t be here without the tweets,” Trump told the Financial Times in April 2017.

At a meeting at the White House last year, Brad Parscale, then Trump’s campaign manager, suggested that the president switch to Parler, an alternative social media site that has become popular with right-wing users. But Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, later turned down the idea, sharing Mr Trump’s trust that Twitter would not act, and it never happened, such a person who was briefed on what happened.

While the White House still has official Twitter accounts like @POTUS and @WhiteHouse until it opens, Twitter has announced that it will make it easier to transfer these accounts to the incoming Biden administration. Prior to Wednesday’s mob attack, Twitter’s executive director Jack Dorsey was involved in discussions about the transfer of these accounts, said a person familiar with the discussions.

The backlash against Mr. Trump online began Wednesday after his President-challenged loyalists breached the Capitol building. As a result, Twitter temporarily blocked Mr. Trump’s account, followed by Facebook. At the time, Twitter said the risk of having his comment live on its website had become too high.

The company said Mr Trump could return to his platform if he deleted multiple tweets containing falsehoods about the elections or calls for violence in violation of its guidelines. One of the tweets was a video Mr. Trump posted after police pushed the mob back where he told his followers, “We love you. You are something special. ”

After Mr Trump cut those posts, he was put back on the site Thursday. Late Thursday he issued a conciliatory message saying he was outraged by the violence and would allow a peaceful change of power.

But Mr. Trump tweeted on Friday that his supporters were “American patriots” with a “HUGE VOICE well into the future”. He also said he would not attend the inauguration on January 20.

Twitter said the news appeared to condone Wednesday’s violence and was likely to fuel further violence. It added that the one about the inauguration offered the date as a target.

“Plans for future armed protests have already spread on and off Twitter, including a planned secondary attack on the US Capitol and the state capitol building on January 17, 2021,” Twitter said.

Within Twitter, employees and executives have discussed how to treat Mr. Trump’s account. Mr Dorsey was vacationing on an island in French Polynesia this week but has been invited to meetings, said three people with knowledge of his location. On Thursday, he sent an email to employees saying it was important for Twitter to adhere to its policies, including the policy that a user can return after being temporarily banned, according to someone who received the email Has.

Hundreds of employees soon signed a petition urging the company to remove Mr Trump’s account immediately, said three people familiar with the petition. The petition was previously reported by the Washington Post.

On Friday, Twitter held a meeting with employees, two people with knowledge of the event said. During the meeting, workers urged executives why they hadn’t permanently banned Mr. Trump from the platform.

Mr Dorsey and other executives, like Vijaya Gadde, director of law and security at Twitter, said the company wants to be in line with its policies. These say that users can tweet again after deleting the messages that violate the rules.

But Mr Dorsey also said he “drew a line” in the sand that the president could not cross for fear of losing his account privileges, people with knowledge of the event said. Mr Dorsey said Twitter would issue a suspension if Mr Trump crossed that line.

Emerson Brooking, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, said the closure of Mr. Trump’s Twitter account was in some ways too late, given that the president had already been promoting so many conspiracy theories on the platform in recent years.

“Removing Trump from Twitter will not fix our policies, nor will it bring millions of Americans back to reality,” Brooking said. “But it makes it a lot harder for disinformation to go mainstream. And it makes it harder for Trump to reach his supporters. “

Aside from muting Mr. Trump’s largest megaphone, Twitter’s decision could be a headache for the Trump administration when it comes to complying with the Presidential Records Act of 1978, which requires the retention of materials and communications from the President.

Maggie Haberman, Katie Rosman and Maggie Astor contributed to the coverage.

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Twitter and Fb Lock Trump’s Accounts After Violence on Capitol Hill

Twitter and Facebook Lock Trump’s Accounts After Violence on Capitol Hill

On Twitter, on Wednesday, users asked the company’s CEO, Jack Dorsey, to close President Trump’s account. Civil rights groups said actions by social media companies against calls for political violence were “long overdue”. Even venture capitalists who had made wealth by investing in social media urged Twitter and Facebook to do more.

“For four years you have been rationalizing this terror. Inciting violent treason is not free speech, ”wrote Chris Sacca, a technology investor who invested in Twitter, to Mr. Dorsey and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “If you work in these companies, it’s up to you too. Shut it down.”

Twitter, Facebook and others had previously refused to crack down on Mr Trump’s posts and other toxic content, stating that the posts were in the public interest. While the platforms had taken more steps against political misinformation in the months leading up to the election, the platforms refused to remove Mr Trump’s messages and instead took half-measures, such as labeling his posts.

When violence broke out in Washington on Wednesday, longtime critics said it was the day the chickens came home to settle down for the social media companies. After the onslaught of criticism began, Twitter and Facebook removed several of Mr. Trump’s posts from their websites, including one in which the president falsely stated that “a holy landslide election victory” was “unceremoniously and viciously stripped.”

The transition of the president

Updated

Jan. 7, 2021, 3:41 p.m. ET

“We know the social media companies have been laconic at best,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, director of the Anti-Defamation League, to keep extremism from growing on their platforms. “Freedom of expression is not the freedom to incite violence. This is not a protected language. “

Renee DiResta, a researcher at Stanford Internet Observatory who studies online movements, added that the violence was the result of people engaging in closed social networks who believed the allegations of electoral fraud and election of Mr. Trump were stolen.

“This is a demonstration of the very real effects of echo chambers,” she said. “This was a remarkable rejection of the idea that there is an online and an offline world and that what is said online is in some way kept online. I hope this removes the notion from people’s minds. “