Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on Friday urged Twitter to suspend President Trump’s account “in the interest of our national security” after a mob of his supporters raided the U.S. Capitol this week.
“The next 12 days are critical for the preservation of our democracy. @jack, once again I urge you to suspend the @realDonaldTrump @twitter account in the interest of our national security and public safety,” Mnuchin tweeted, tagging Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.
Twitter and Facebook temporarily suspended Trump’s accounts on Wednesday over posts about the mob that stormed the Capitol, which the platforms said violated their policies.
One of the posts was a one-minute video in which Trump urged the mob to go home, but also repeated unsubstantiated voter fraud claims. The second struck a similar tone but repeated his false claims about his “landslide victory.”
The posts were deleted from the Twitter account, and Trump later regained access to the account. However, Wednesday’s actions were the most drastic taken against Trump’s accounts.
In response to Manchin’s tweet, a Twitter spokesperson told The Hill “any future violations of the Twitter Rules, including our Civic Integrity or Violent Threats policies, will result in permanent suspension of the @realDonaldTrump account.”
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Thursday that its suspension will remain at least until President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration.
“His decision to use his platform to condone rather than condemn the actions of his supporters at the Capitol building has rightly disturbed people in the US and around the world,” Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook. “We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great.”
Snapchat also suspended Trump’s account indefinitely in the wake of the riot, and Shopify removed Trump’s official stores from its platform.