Will Twitter survive after Donald Trump's permanent ban? Social media giant loses $5 billion in market value
The removal of President Donald Trump's account from Twitter has had a negative impact on the shares of the social networking platform. The stock price for Twitter Inc, which is a California-based company, reportedly dropped more than 12% on Monday, January 11, which set back the company $5 billion from its $41 billion market capitalization, according to Business Insider.
The permanent suspension of the POTUS' account was made by Twitter after he posted two tweets which were in violation of the company's glorification of violence policy. “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!!!” one of them read, while another stated, "To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th."
Before his account was deleted, Trump had more than 88 million followers, making him among the top six most-followed users. After Trump posted a video telling protesters who stormed the Capitol to “go home in peace” both Twitter and Facebook blocked the president from accessing their respective platforms. Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc. also saw a fall in their shares after Trump’s accounts were removed from their platforms.
We previously reported that following the suspension of Trump's Twitter account, the social media giant has also purged more than 70,000 accounts since Friday that were primarily dedicated to sharing QAnon content after last week’s violence in Washington, DC.
“Given the violent events in Washington, DC, and increased risk of harm, we began permanently suspending thousands of accounts that were primarily dedicated to sharing QAnon content on Friday afternoon”, Twitter said in a blog late on Monday. "Many of the individuals impacted by this updated enforcement action held multiple accounts, driving up the total number of accounts impacted. Since Friday, more than 70,000 accounts have been suspended as a result of our efforts, with many instances of a single individual operating numerous accounts. These accounts were engaged in sharing harmful QAnon-associated content at scale and were primarily dedicated to the propagation of this conspiracy theory across the service. Our updated enforcement on QAnon content on Twitter, along with routine spam challenges, has resulted in changes in follower count for some people’s Twitter accounts. In some cases, these actions may have resulted in follower count changes in the thousands."
On Friday, January 8, Twitter removed the accounts of Michael Flynn, Sidney Powell, and other high-profile supporters of President Donald Trump who promoted the QAnon conspiracy theory. Twitter also removed the account of Ron Watkins, the administrator of the website 8kun, which was formerly named 8chan, and hosts posts from Q, the false digital “prophet” at the heart of the QAnon conspiracy theory.
On Monday, January 11, Facebook stated that it would begin removing any content that led to “Stop the Steal,” a rallying cry for Trump supporters who believe the false claim that the election was stolen from Trump. On Monday, January 11, Amazon also stated that it is working to remove some QAnon products from its online marketplace, citing policies that prohibit offensive items or other inappropriate content. Other social media platforms such as Snapchat and Reddit have also limited content from Trump and his speeches that might inspire people to violence in recent days.