Twitter will not allow Trump account archive on platform

Twitter will not allow an archive of former President Trump’s @realDonaldTrump account on its platform.

A Twitter spokesperson told The Hill that the platform has been working with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) on preserving tweets from the account, as they’ve done in the past with government Twitter accounts.

However, content from the account will not appear on the platform itself.

“Given that we permanently suspended @realDonaldTrump, the content from the account will not appear on Twitter as it did previously or as archived administration accounts do currently, regardless of how NARA decides to display the data it has preserved,” a Twitter spokesperson told The Hill. “Administration accounts that are archived on the service are accounts that were not in violation of the Twitter Rules.”

The National Archives has archived several former Trump administration accounts, including Trump’s @POTUS45, former First Lady Melania Trump’s @FLOTUS45, and former Vice President Pence’s @VP45.

However, Twitter permanently suspended the @realDonaldTrump account two days after the deadly riots at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, after finding that two of his tweets, when read the context of the riots, violated the platform’s Glorification of Violence policy.

Twitter chief financial officer Ned Segal told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” in February that the ban was permanent, even if Trump ran for public office again.

The move was met with fury by conservatives who said the move amounted to censorship. Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) also said in late March that he “didn’t feel comfortable” with Trump not being able to express his views on Twitter.

The National Archives’ Public and Media Communications told The Hill in a statement that it intends to preserve all presidential records on social media, including tweets that have been blocked or deleted. It says Twitter is “solely responsible” for deciding what content is allowed on their platform.

“NARA works closely with Twitter and other social media platforms to maintain archived social accounts from each presidential administration, but ultimately the platform owners can decline to host these accounts,” the statement said. “NARA preserves platform independent copies of social media records and is working to make that content available to the public.”