SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – Days after social media giant Twitter banned President Donald Trump from its platform following a violent takeover of the US Capitol, San Francisco police in the company Market Street early Monday for ‘ a protest by his supporters begins to strike headquarters.
Although there was no official word on a mass demonstration, there was social media traffic urging supporters of the president to gather at Twitter headquarters.
Fortunately, the thousands of Twitter employees who would normally be at work on Monday have not been in the building since March 2020, when they were told to work remotely due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
In a statement to the San Francisco Chronicle Sunday night, a company spokesman said Twitter respects “the right of people to know their opinion.”
“While we respect people’s right to express their opinions, we were transparent about the factors that led to our decision last week,” the spokesman said in an email. “We have nothing to add, but wanted to confirm that we still have mandatory homework guidance for Twitter employees.”
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San Francisco police also told the newspaper that they had plans – including calling for mutual assistance from nearby law enforcement agencies – if necessary.
Twitter announced Friday afternoon that it has permanently suspended Trump’s account over his tweets that it could incite violence.
In a statement the company, which was released over the suspension, said Twitter officials reviewed Trump’s tweets over the past week and determined they were violating the site’s policies.
The suspension comes just days after Trump supporters forcibly took over the U.S. Capitol, killing five people and evacuating Congress from the building when the legislature planned to ratify Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential election .
Photo of Trump’s suspended Twitter account (CBS SF)
“In the context of horrific events this week, we made it clear on Wednesday that further violations of the Twitter rules may lead to this way,” Twitter wrote at the time. ‘Our public interest framework exists to enable the public to hear directly from elected officials and world leaders. It is built on a principle that the people have the right to hold public accountable. ”
“However, we made it clear years ago that these accounts are not completely outside our rules and cannot, among other things, use Twitter to incite violence.”
READ MORE: Parler launched by Amazon, Apple and Google; May need to temporarily go offline
The statement contained Twitter documentation of Trump’s tweets that violated the site’s standards of “glorification of violence.”
One of Trump’s tweets that violates this standard reads:
‘The 75,000,000 great American patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and AMERICA MAKES GREAT AGAIN, will have a HUGE VOICE until the future. They will in no way, shape or form, be despised or treated !!! ”
Twitter also suspended the accounts of former Trump security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump campaign attorney Sidney Powell for sharing reports on the web of conspiracy theories known as QAnon.
The social media giant suspended the president’s bill for twelve hours on Wednesday. The platform made several of its posts ‘unavailable’ after its supporters overran Capitol Hill, and subsequently temporarily closed the president’s account.
Twitter was not alone in taking action against the president. Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Youtube also suspended Trump accounts and Amazon, Apple and Google all started the pro-Trump Parler from their platforms.
Amazon will remove Parler, the alternative social media platform favored by conservatives, from its cloud hosting service, Amazon Web Services, from Sunday night and effectively kick it off the public internet after pressure from the public and Amazon employees increased.