Twitter employees lock their accounts fearing backlash from Donald Trump's supporters

17 January,2021 03:23 PM IST |  San Francisco  |  IANS

The company has even given personal security to some executives.

Photo for representational purpose


Fearing backlash from supporters of the outgoing US president Donald Trump, some Twitter employees have locked their accounts and the company has even given personal security to some executives.

They have set their accounts to private and scrubbed their online biographies over concerns they may be targeted by Trump supporters, reports the New York Times.

More than 300 Twitter employees signed an internal petition calling for a permanent Trump suspension.

The Trump account was permanently suspended from Twitter on January 8, "due to the risk of further incitement of violence."

According to the report, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was earlier not convinced that a temporary ban on the president was the right decision.

In a series of tweets last week, Dorsey finally said that banning Trump's account was the right call.

He defended the ban, saying that it was the right move as offline harm as a result of online speech is demonstrably real.

The Twitter ban came after a pro-Trump mob stormed the US Capitol, hoping to stop the certification of Joe Biden's election victory.

"I do not celebrate or feel pride in our having to ban @realDonaldTrump from Twitter, or how we got here. After a clear warning we'd take this action, we made a decision with the best information we had based on threats to physical safety both on and off Twitter," Dorsey said in one of his tweets.

He blamed Twitter's failure "to promote healthy conversation," acknowledged that Twitter needs to "look critically at inconsistencies of our policy and enforcement".

According to Twitter, more than 70,000 harmful accounts have been suspended as a result of its efforts after the violence in Washington, DC, with many instances of a single individual operating numerous accounts.

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever.

"Exciting news! Mid-day is now on WhatsApp Channels Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
Twitter donald trump
Related Stories