Diamonds—and Donald Trump’s Twitter ban—are forever. Company CFO Ned Segal this week confirmed that the former president will not be allowed back on the platform, even during a future run for office.
Following the Jan. 6 US Capitol riot, Twitter temporarily locked Trump’s account, only to ban him indefinitely after a pair of tweets once again violated Twitter’s rules.
“The way our policies work, when you’re removed from the platform, you’re removed from the platform,” Segal told CNBC Squawk Box host Becky Quick on Wednesday. “Whether you’re a commentator, you’re a CFO, or you are a former or current public official.
“Our policies are designed to make sure that people are not inciting violence. And if anybody does that, we would have to remove them from the service,” the Twitter exec continued, implying that even a 2024 bid for president would not restore Trump’s access to the social network. “He was removed when he was president. There’d be no difference for anybody who’s a public official, once they’ve been removed from the service.”
The ban has sparked bipartisan controversy, with conservatives claiming Silicon Valley is trying to suppress free speech, and liberals blasting tech firms for doing too little, too late to curb extremism. Even Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey lamented the decision.
In a Jan. 14 Twitter thread, Dorsey admitted the company’s sentence underscores the failure of US social media to improve society. “I feel a ban is a failure of ours ultimately to promote healthy conversation. Having to take these actions fragment the public conversation. They divide us,” he wrote. “They limit the potential for clarification, redemption, and learning. And sets a precedent I feel is dangerous: the power of an individual or corporation has over a part of the global public conversation.”
