Twitter Files Part Five details Trump was deplatformed despite 'no violations of policy'

The recent explosive revelations made by the four parts of Twitter files have stirred a storm all over the world. From revelations regarding Hunter Biden to the saga of de-platforming former US President Donald Trump, the Twitter files have managed to reveal several dark secrets of the much-loved social media networking site. On Monday, new Twitter head Elon Musk shared Part 5 of the Twitter files, in which journalist Bari Weiss revealed more about what went on in the case of de-platforming former US president Trump.

Part 5, titled ‘The Removal of Trump from Twitter’ claims that former President was banned way before it was proven that he may have violated Twitter guidelines. The journalist also asserted that the internal pressure to ban Trump can be one of the reasons for the move. According to Weiss, on the morning of January 8, 2021, Trump was “one strike away” from being at risk of permanent suspension from Twitter. She then went on to share the two tweets Donald Trump made that morning. 

In the Twitter files Part 5 thread, Weiss claims that for years, Twitter has been resisting banning the former US President on the ground that blocking a world leader and censoring him would cause a hindrance in sharing important information and enabling space for debate. However, things changed after the January 6 attacks. The social media networking site started witnessing pressures from both inside and outside of the company to ban Trump. Weiss then went on to share numerous chat threads of Twitter staff, pushing for Trump's ban from the social media platform. One of the Twitter employees wrote, "I am still struggling to understand the decision not to ban Trump altogether, given he is inciting people to violence that has led to people being killed. And I think we owe people an explanation externally." Weiss also talked about how The Washington Post revealed that over 300 Twitter employees signed an open letter to the former Twitter CEO and founder Jack Dorsey to ban the twice impeached former US President. 

Did Trump violate Twitter guidelines?

Amidst all the chaos, a Twitter staff assigned to evaluate tweets concluded that the former president didn’t violate Twitter policies with his two January 8 morning tweets. Weiss shared the chat thread of the whole ordeal. One of the Twitter staffers wrote, “It's pretty clear he's saying the ‘American Patriots’ are the ones who voted for him and not the terrorists (we can call them that, right?) from Wednesday.” Another employee who saw nothing wrong with Trump’s tweet was Anika Navaroli, who later testified to the House on January 6 Committee. Nacaroli defended the organisation's move to suspend Trump and claimed on January 8, 2021 that she is “not seeing clear or coded incitement in the DJT’s tweet”.

Weiss claimed that things started to escalate shortly after. According to Weiss, Twitter employees from the “scaled enforcement team” later suggested that Trump’s tweet “may have violated Twitter’s Glorification of Violence policy”. The team claimed that the phrase, “American Patriots” can refer to the January 6 rioters. Trump’s fate was sealed following a 30-minute all-staff meeting with Jack Dorsey and Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s head of legal.  

In the Twitter thread, Journalist Weiss questioned why the former US president’s account was suspended from Twitter while some of the explosive tweets made by other authoritarian leaders still didn’t lead to their account suspension. Weiss gave examples of tweets posted by Iranian Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. Commenting on the revelations made by the recent files, Musk wrote, “Under pressure from hundreds of activist employees, Twitter deplatforms Trump, a sitting US President, even though they themselves acknowledge that he didn’t violate the rules."