[Music]
breaking tonight
just in the past minute twitter has
announced it is cutting off president
trump's ability
to post on the social media site
permanently
suspending the president's account at
realdonaldtrump
twitter saying after close review of
recent tweets from the president's
account
and the context around them we have
permanently suspended the account due to
the risk
of further incitement and violence in
context
of the horrific events this week we've
made it clear on wednesday that
additional violations of the twitter
rules would
potentially result in this very course
of action joining us again
from the north lawn of the white house
john roberts john obviously this
president has used twitter
throughout his presidency he has some 89
million followers and now
twitter permanently suspending his
account
yeah you know they cut it off for about
a day and a half bretton now they've cut
it off permanently and just to give you
a little more context as to
what's behind all of this twitter put
out a blog
detailing its decision and in that blog
twitter says the president trump's
statement
that he will not be attending the
inauguration is being received
by a number of his supporters is further
confirmation that the election was not
legitimate and is being seen as him
disavowing his previous claim via two
tweets
for an orderly transition on the 20th
the second tweet may also serve it says
here as encouragement
to those potentially considering violent
acts that the inauguration would be a
quote
safe target as he will not be attending
further the use of the words american
patriots
in earlier tweets to describe some of
his supporters is also being
interpreted as support for those
committing violent acts at the u.s
capitol and a tweet that he put out
earlier today
about 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 that he
won the election according to twitter
plans for future
armed protests have already begun
proliferating
on and off twitter including a proposed
secondary attack on the u.s capitol
and state capitol buildings on january
the 17th
so twitter is looking at all of this and
its calculation is that what the
president is saying
even by just saying that i'm not
attending uh the inauguration
is is is being seen as
code language to the president's
supporters that it's a safe target there
at the capitol
that that the election was not
legitimate despite the fact that the
president has called for an
orderly transition so because of this
incitement
to violence as twitter is is perceiving
it
uh they are permanently suspending the
president's account now he can still get
the message out through his digital
media director dan scavino
his facebook and instagram accounts have
also been blocked
this was the way that the president was
reaching out past the press
to get straight to his constituents so
we'll have to see how the president
reacts to all of this
uh brett it seemed that he reacted all
right
to the first suspension because he knew
it was only going to be temporary but
this permanent suspension now this may
draw something out of the president
we haven't seen so it is something to
see a company and they are a company
divine from those statements uh
what they divine in that blog readout
of what it truly means i mean we should
point out the president also
put out uh a video in which he denounced
the violence
pretty specifically in that speech which
came out
on twitter yeah and the president has
long railed against
big tech facebook twitter other other um
social media platforms uh which is why
he has been looking to repeal section
230
uh to that protects them from actions
regarding things that are either posted
or actions that they take
it protects them from legal action so
the president will probably
uh yell even louder and longer about
that whole thing but but you're right
brett that
you know the tweet about for those of
you who have been asking i'm not going
to go to the inauguration on the 20th
would seem to be innocent
on the surface but twitter was saying
when you look at the reaction to it and
the conversation that it's fomenting on
on twitter uh it they're perceiving it
as being
dangerous talk i'm not sure that that's
the interpretation
that you would draw from it but but
again they're taking all of this as a
whole
uh they've long had a problem with
president trump and what he puts on
twitter and it looks like that problem
has now come to a head
in a way that twitter which is a private
company can take unilateral action here
yeah and i think this is going to be a
major story not just from what happened
this week but
going forward about what it means about
the interaction of
government officials and social media
what divining words
it means they are private companies yeah
and again they're they're public to a
large degree because they are such a
platform for interaction between people
around the world but they are at their
very basic level a private company and
they can take steps that they think
is appropriate to protect their company
or protect people who are um
consuming the product that that they
facilitate
but again for the president to have his
major voice taken away from him
considering that he hasn't spoken
he hasn't taken any questions from the
press for a long time now
that could provoke some sort of reaction
we'll see we'll keep watching
yeah i mean it's it's quite something it
fits into a bigger picture john we'll
head back for any breaking news