By Jason Ross
Around 4:30 p.m., Trump tweeted a one-minute video, urging his supporters to go home. Standing in front of the White House, he said: “I know your pain; I know your hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election and everyone knows it, especially the other side. But you have to go home now. We have to have peace. We have to have law and order. We have to respect our great people in law and order. We don’t want anybody hurt. It’s a very tough period of time. There has never been a time like this, where such a thing happened, where they could take it away from all of us, from me, from you, from our country. This was a fraudulent election. But we can’t play into the hands of these people. We have to have peace. So go home. We love you. You are very special. You’ve seen what happens; you see the way others are treated, that are so bad and so evil. I know how you feel, but go home and go home in peace.”
At first Twitter limited the distribution of the video (no likes, comments, or direct retweets), and then actually removed it, as did Facebook, which reported that it took the action on the astonishing basis that Trump’s call for leaving the Capitol peacefully “contributes to rather than diminishes the risk of ongoing violence”!
Facebook has locked Trump out of the platform for 24 hours.
The same censorious fate befell Trump’s now-removed 6:01 p.m. tweet, which read: “These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!”
At 7:02 p.m., Twitter safety reported that Twitter had removed three of Donald Trump’s tweets and locked his account: “This means that the account of @realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours following the removal of these Tweets. If the Tweets are not removed, the account will remain locked.” This means that even though Twitter has removed the Tweets, Trump must also delete them himself before they will allow him to use the platform.
Twitter Safety warned President Trump that they were prepared to lock him out of Twitter entirely: “Future violations of the Twitter Rules, including our Civic Integrity or Violent Threats policies, will result in permanent suspension of the @realDonaldTrump account.”
This means that during a state of emergency in Washington, D.C. and Virginia, after a historical intrusion into the Capitol, when people are demanding the impeachment or 25th Amendment removal of the President of the United States, he is unable to communicate directly with the people using the two most popular social media platforms.