Internal Twitter conversations released Friday by reporter Matt Taibbi showed the deliberations that Twitter executives had when deciding to ban former President Donald Trump from the platform in January of 2021.
Trump’s account ban was ultimately justified by Twitter executives as looking at the “context surrounding” Trump and his supporters “over the course of the election and frankly last 4+ years,” one internal conversation shows, according to Taibbi’s Twitter thread.
7. Twitter executives removed Trump in part over what one executive called the “context surrounding”: actions by Trump and supporters “over the course of the election and frankly last 4+ years.” In the end, they looked at a broad picture. But that approach can cut both ways. pic.twitter.com/Trgvq5jmhS
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 9, 2022
Before the riot on Jan. 6, Twitter was already closely moderating Trump’s Twitter account by employing “a vast array of tools for manipulating visibility,” Taibbi tweeted. Trump’s account was reportedly “covered in bots,” with “bot” meaning “any automated heuristic moderation rule,” on the day of the riot, according to Taibbi. (RELATED: Twitter Used ‘Vast Array Of Tools’ To Throttle Trump’s Account Even Before Jan. 6, Docs Reveal)
When the riot began unfolding on Jan. 6, Twitter executives reportedly made “frantic calls” to “start deploying its full arsenal of moderation tools,” a tweet posted by Taibbi showing an internal Twitter conversation revealed.
Three of Trump’s tweets were first “bounced” on Jan. 6 for allegedly making “unfounded claims of voter fraud and election theft,” according to Taibbi. A “bounce” resulted in a 12-hour ban following the removal of the tweets. “We also have tweeted so there’s transparency in our actions and making it clear that future violations of the Twitter Rules will result in permanent suspension,” Twitter executive Vijaya Gadde allegedly wrote in a company-wide email at the time.
61. The first company-wide email from Gadde on January 6th announced that 3 Trump tweets had been bounced, but more importantly signaled a determination to use legit “violations” as a guide for any possible permanent suspension: pic.twitter.com/p6WmbS2MsA
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
What happened between Jan. 6 and Jan. 8, the day that Trump was banned from the platform, will be revealed on Sunday, Taibbi said.
A statement from Twitter at the time said that Trump was suspended after the following two tweets: “The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!” and “to all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.”