Twitter has announced the permanent suspension of Donald Trump's account following a number of temporary locks on his account this week.
"After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them — specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter — we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence," Twitter said in a statement.
Soon after his account was blocked from Twitter, Mr Trump tried to post a tweet from the official presidential account.
"As I have been saying for a long time, Twitter has gone further and further in banning free speech, and tonight, Twitter employees have coordinated with the Democrats and the Radical Left in removing my account from their platform, to silence me – and YOU, the 75,000,000 great patriots who voted for me," he wrote.
"We have been negotiating with various other sites, and will have a big announcement soon, while we also look at the possibilities of building out our own platform in the near future.
"We will not be SILENCED!
"Twitter is not about promoting FREE SPEECH.
"They are all about promoting a Radical Left platform where some of the most vicious people in the world are allowed to speak freely.
The tweet was swiftly deleted.
He then appeared to try and commandeer the account of his campaign's digital director, Gary Coby.
Shortly after Mr Coby's account name was changed to Donald J Trump, it too was deleted.
So too was the account of his presidential campaign, @TeamTrump, which has also been taken down.
"As I have been saying for a long time, Twitter has gone further and further in banning free speech," he wrote on the Team Trump account before it was taken down.
Reddit has banned its popular Trump-themed subreddit, and Discord has banned its Trump channel.
The ban comes after a historic week in United States with Democratic candidate Joe Biden officially announced as the winner of the election and violent protests at the US Capitol in Washington.
https://twitter.com/TwitterSafety/status/1347684877634838528
"In the context of horrific events this week, we made it clear on Wednesday that additional violations of the Twitter Rules would potentially result in this very course of action," the statement from Twitter said.
"Our public interest framework exists to enable the public to hear from elected officials and world leaders directly. It is built on a principle that the people have a right to hold power to account in the open."
"However, we made it clear going back years that these accounts are not above our rules entirely and cannot use Twitter to incite violence, among other things."
Twitter cited two tweets sent in recent days as against its glorification of violence policies.
"On January 8, 2021, President Donald J. Trump tweeted:
"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!!!"
https://twitter.com/Ninecomau/status/1347687513863847936
"Shortly thereafter, the President tweeted:
"To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th."
"Due to the ongoing tensions in the United States, and an uptick in the global conversation in regards to the people who violently stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, these two Tweets must be read in the context of broader events in the country and the ways in which the President's statements can be mobilised by different audiences, including to incite violence, as well as in the context of the pattern of behaviour from this account in recent weeks."
Mr Trump has also been banned from posting on Facebook and Instagram for the remaining 11 days of his presidency.
Twitter has also suspended the accounts of Mr Trump's former national security advisor Michael Flynn, and his legal advisor Sidney Powell.
One of Mr Trump's top advisers Jason Miller took to Twitter to criticise the platform.
"Disgusting. Big Tech wants to cancel all 75M @realDonaldTrump supporters," he tweeted.
"If you don't think they're coming for you next, you're wrong."
Mr Trump's son Donald Jr also lashed out.
"So the ayatollah, and numerous other dictatorial regimes can have Twitter accounts with no issue despite threatening genocide to entire countries and killing homosexuals etc… but The President of the United States should be permanently suspended," he tweeted.
"Mao would be proud."
Meanwhile, Apple has issued an ultimatum to the social media platform Parler, which has become a refuge in the past year for conservatives too toxic for Twitter.
Apple has told Parler it needs to implement stricter moderation of its platform or it will be removed from its App Store.
"We have received numerous complaints regarding objectionable content in your Parler service, accusations that the Parler app was used to plan, coordinate, and facilitate the illegal activities in Washington D.C. on January 6, 2021 that led (among other things) to loss of life, numerous injuries, and the destruction of property," Apple wrote to Parler.
"The app also appears to continue to be used to plan and facilitate yet further illegal and dangerous activities."
Parler has been given 24 hours to submit a moderation improvement plan.
But Parler's CEO John Matze has shown no sign of backing down.
"We will not cave to pressure from anti-competitive actors! We will and always have enforced our rules against violence and illegal activity," he wrote in a message on his own platform.
"But we WONT cave to politically motivated companies and those authoritarians who hate free speech!"
Google has been less patient, immediately suspending Parler from its Google Play store.
