Twitter's curbs on extremism to go beyond ban on Trump

LONDON — Twitter's clampdown on extremist accounts will be “much bigger” than simply banning U.S. president Donald Trump, the company's chief executive says.

The social media giant made the decision to remove Trump from the platform earlier this month following the storming of the U.S. Capitol building by rioters on Jan. 6.

At the time, Twitter said it had decided to suspend the account due to the risk of “further incitement of violence”.

The decision quickly drew criticism. Angela Merkel, German chancellor, said the ban was a “problematic” breach of the “fundamental right to free speech.”

However, Jack Dorsey is doubling down on his decision. The company's chief executive now says its campaign against extremist accounts would go on “beyond the inauguration” of

Joe Biden, which will take place on Wednesday.

“We are focused on one account right now,” he said in a video made for Twitter's employees. “But this is going to be much bigger than just one account and it's going to go on for much longer than just this day, this week and the next few weeks, and go on beyond the inauguration. We have to expect that, we have to be ready for that.”

Last Tuesday, Twitter suspended more than 70,000 accounts linked to far-right movements like QAnon, a conspiracy theory that believes Trump is leading a war against a host of Satan-worshipping pedophiles in politics as well as business and the media.

Dorsey went on to say the U.S. is “extremely divided” and that it was showing every day on the site.

“Our role is to protect the integrity of that conversation and do what we can to make sure that no one is being harmed based off that,” he said.

Dorsey said it was the “right decision” for Twitter and that “offline harm as a result of online speech is demonstrably real.”

Our role is ... to make sure that no one is being harmed.” Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey