Donald Trump Banned From Twitter ‘Forever,’ According to CFO

Former President Donald Trump is permanently banned from Twitter following his incitement of the Jan. 6 insurrection attempt at the U.S. Capitol, Twitter’s Chief Financial Officer, Ned Segal said Wednesday in an interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box. The social media platform previously said Trump was “indefinitely” banned last month, but speculation he would be permitted to rejoin if running for office again.

Asked directly about Trump’s ability to join Twitter again, Segal answered, “The way our policies work, when you’re removed from the platform, you’re removed from the platform whether you’re a commentator, a CFO or a former or current public official.” He continued that the tech giant’s policies are designed “to make sure that people are not inciting violence,” and if a user violates those policies, “we have to remove them from the service and our policies don’t allow people to come back.”

Following the attack on the U.S. Capitol last month, Trump was removed from every major social media platform, and indefinitely banned from both Twitter and Facebook. “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’s statement read at the time. While the social media company noted it had a “public interest framework” in place so its users can “hear from elected officials and world leaders directly,” the leadership said Trump pushed the limits of that framework too far.

“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,” the company noted at the time. “We will continue to be transparent around our policies and their enforcement.”

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg made a similar statement at the time, citing the “shocking events” of the Capitol attack as a clear demonstration that Trump “intends to use his remaining time in office to undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power to his elected successor, Joe Biden.”

“His decision to use his platform to condone rather than condemn the actions of his supporters at the Capitol building has rightly disturbed people in the US and around the world,” Zuckerberg continued. “We removed these statements yesterday because we judged that their effect—and likely their intent—would be to provoke further violence.”