Days after social media giant Twitter banned President Trump from his platform in the wake of the violent takeover of the U.S. Capitol, San Francisco police on Monday began striking at the company’s headquarters for a rally by his supporters.
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.
The thousands of Twitter employees who would normally be at work on Monday had 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 the right of people to know their opinion, 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 are still leading compulsory work from home for Twitter employees.”
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San Francisco police told the newspaper they had plans – including enlisting the help of mutual law enforcement agencies – if necessary.
Twitter announced Friday afternoon that Trump’s account has been permanently suspended over his tweets that it could incite violence.
In a statement, the company said Twitter officials reviewed Trump’s tweets from the past week and determined that it violated the site’s policy.
The suspension came days after Trump supporters forcibly took over the U.S. Capitol, leading to the deaths of five people when Congress began confirming Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.
“In the context of horrific events this week, we made it clear on Wednesday that further violations of Twitter rules could potentially lead to this very action,” 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 based 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.”
The statement contained the Twitter documentation on Trump tweets that, according to the company, violated its standards for “glorifying violence.”
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.