Trump Tweets from POTUS Account amid Permanent Suspension, Twitter Quickly Deletes Messages
Erin Schaff - Pool/Getty Images President Donald Trump
President Donald Trump's attempt to use other handles amid the permanent suspension of his verified Twitter account proved to be unfruitful when his new tweets were quickly removed by the social media platform.
On Friday evening, Trump sent out three tweets from the @POTUS account, a government handle reserved for the sitting president of the United States, after @realDonaldTrump was permanently suspended "due to the risk of further incitement of violence" following a deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Twitter quickly removed the new tweets, in which Trump claimed he was being silenced.
The @TeamTrump handle also shared the same statement, though Twitter suspended the account in addition to removing the tweets.
"As we've said, using another account to try to evade a suspension is against our rules," a spokesperson for Twitter tells PEOPLE in a statement. "We have taken steps to enforce this with regard to recent Tweets from the @POTUS account. For government accounts, such as @POTUS and @WhiteHouse, we will not suspend those accounts permanently but will take action to limit their use."
The company suspended Trump's verified Twitter handle earlier on Friday, citing that two of his recent tweets were in "violation of the Glorification of Violence Policy."
The tweets, which had Trump declaring that he will not be attending President-elect Joe Biden's upcoming inauguration, could be "received by a number of his supporters as further confirmation that the election was not legitimate and is seen as him disavowing his previous claim made via two Tweets ... by his Deputy Chief of Staff, Dan Scavino, that there would be an 'orderly transition' on January 20th," according to Twitter.
In a company blog post, Twitter argued that Trump's use of the phrase "American Patriots" in another tweet "is also being interpreted as support for those committing violent acts at the US Capitol."
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"The shocking events of the last 24 hours clearly demonstrate that President Donald Trump intends to use his remaining time in office to undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power to his elected successor, Joe Biden," Mark Zuckerberg wrote
"The mention of his supporters having a 'GIANT VOICE long into the future' and that 'They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!' is being interpreted as further indication that President Trump does not plan to facilitate an 'orderly transition' and instead that he plans to continue to support, empower, and shield those who believe he won the election," the platform noted.
"Plans for future armed protests have already begun proliferating on and off-Twitter, including a proposed secondary attack on the US Capitol and state capitol buildings on January 17, 2021," the company said.
Prior to the permanent suspension, Twitter had locked Trump's account for 12 hours, requiring the removal of three recent tweets "for repeated and severe violations of our Civic Integrity policy."
In addition to Twitter's ban, Facebook announced on Thursday in a post by founder Mark Zuckerberg that Trump would be banned "indefinitely" from its platforms following the rioting at the U.S. Capitol the president incited.
