- President Donald Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., complained on Saturday about his father’s ban on Twitter and invited his followers to sign up for his email blasts if Twitter banned him as well.
- “Great technology can the president censor?” he wrote. “Freedom of speech is dead and is controlled by left-wing rulers.”
- For the vast majority of his presidency, Twitter allowed Trump to remain on the platform due to the newsworthiness of his posts, but he was banned on Friday after his followers’ deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.
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Donald Trump jr., The eldest son of President Donald Trump, on Saturday Twitter to reprimand his father’s permanent ban from the platform.
“The world laughs at America and Mao, Lenin and Stalin smile,” Trump Jr. said. said in a tweet. “Great technology can censor the president? Free speech is dead and controlled by left-wing gentlemen.”
His comments on Saturday reflect those he made on Friday, in which he said freedom of speech “no longer exists in America. It died with great technology and what is left is only there for a select few.”
Twitter said Friday night that the president, who during his administration used Twitter as his primary way of communicating with Americans, was permanently banned from tweeting. The ban follows Wednesday’s deadly uprising at the U.S. Capitol where supporters of the president stormed the building while lawmakers gathered to discuss Election College certification.
Prior to the January 6 uprising, Trump encouraged his Twitter followers to come to Washington, DC, as part of the ‘Stop the Steal’ movement, which unjustifiably claims that Trump’s loss of President-elect Joe Biden was the result of the widespread voter fraud. There is no evidence of widespread fraud during the election, and Trump and his allies could not substantiate the claim during the months he refused to concede his loss.
“After careful review of recent tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context surrounding them, we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement to violence,” the company said in a statement Friday night.
Despite claims by the president’s allies, his ban on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter does not violate the First Amendment or other U.S. legislation, as Insider noted earlier.
While rioters stayed at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, Trump posted a video on Twitter reiterating his unfounded allegation of election fraud and telling the rioters, “Go home. We love you; you are very special.”
—Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) 9 January 2021
Twitter initially suspended the president’s account for 12 hours, but warned that he could take further action if he violated his policy on civil integrity and violent threats.
Republicans have long complained about censorship by technology and social media executives, whose companies have taken stronger action in recent months against disinformation and misinformation on their platforms. For much of 2020, for example, the president’s tweets often had an indemnity that the content of his posts was disputed by trusted sources.
Republicans, including Trump, have called for section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA), which enables tech companies to decide how to moderate, repeal and protect content from the liability of their users.
IDP legislators have argued that the law leads to technology companies’ censorship of conservatives. Democrats have also addressed the law, as Insider reported earlier, believing it offers tech giants like Google, Twitter and Facebook too much protection against the content offered on their platforms.
Trump Jr. also on Saturday urged his followers to sign up for his email blasts so they can follow where he ends up if Twitter also bans him for violating his policies.
In the wake of this week’s uprising at the Capitol, a growing number of conservatives have announced that they will jump to Parler, the platform called a right-wing alternative to Twitter, which has protested or feared the president’s ban. social network is excluded. Gab, a platform with similar right-wing ties, has also sought to anger users who are angry about Twitter’s decision to remove the president.
Shortly after Twitter banned the president, he posted on the platform using the @POTUS account, which will be transferred to Biden when he takes office, but Twitter removed the posts almost immediately. It also bans an account related to his 2020 presidential campaign.