Rep. Cicciline Calls on Twitter to Suspend Trump Account

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Rep. David Cicciline (D-R.I.), chairman of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee, has called on Twitter to suspend the account of President Donald Trump.

Common Cause and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law also called on Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to suspend the President's account given what they said were "repeated violations of Twitter’s Civic Integrity Policy" (see below).

Appropriately, Cicciline used Twitter to say that: [T]he President's Twitter account is posting lies and misinformation at a breathtaking clip. It is a threat to our democracy and should be suspended until all the votes are counted."

The President has been peppering his twitter account with allegations of widespread fraud and accusations the election is being stolen from him. That coming as states continue to count mail-in ballots from a handful of states with razor-thin margins, counts that are mostly going in Biden's favor.

Twitter has in recent days flagged, and moved behind a "view" link, a host of similar tweets by the President.

In fact the two most recent Trump tweets at press time, including "STOP THE FRAUD," were not on the first page of the President's account but instead behind the "view" link, with the now-familiar advisory: "Some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process. Learn more."

That "learn more" link leads to Twitter's Civil Integrity Policy," which does not allow its site to be used for content it concludes is "manipulating or interfering in elections or other civic processes."

It was similar flagging of the President's tweets on mail-in voting and protests earlier in the year that prompted the President to call on the FCC to regulate social media sites, arguing they were trying to censor him and other Republicans in an effort to aid his Democratic opponents.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.