Twitter on Thursday suspended an account that reposted statements former President Trump shared on his own website, which appeared to be an attempt to evade the ban that the platform placed on the former president’s account in the aftermath of the deadly Capitol insurrection he incited.
On Thursday morning, a Twitter account with the handle @DJTDesk appeared on the platform. The account featured “posts copied from Save America on behalf of the 45th POTUS; Originally composed via DonaldJTrump/Desk,” according to its bio section.
Hours later, the new account was suspended.
A Twitter spokesperson told TPM in a statement that the account violated its ban evasion policy.
As stated in our ban evasion policy, we’ll take enforcement action on accounts whose apparent intent is to replace or promote content affiliated with a suspended account,” the Twitter spokesperson said.
TPM reached out to the Office of Donald J. Trump for comment.
Jason Miller, a spokesman for Trump, denied to NBC News that the suspended Twitter account was created by, or had the permission of, anyone affiliated with the former president.
The newly suspended account was made a day after the former president launched his new platform “From the Desk of Donald J. Trump,” which mimics his old Twitter account.
Trump’s platform allows the former president to share comments, images and videos on his DonaldJTrump.com website, and includes the option for people to repost the content on social media. However, people cannot comment on Trump’s posts.
Trump’s website features many of his press releases in lieu of the Twitter account he used to actively post to prior to the deadly Capitol insurrection. Twitter permanently suspended Trump’s account after he incited the mob behind the Capitol attack on Jan. 6. The then-president told a crowd of his supporters at a “Stop the Steal” rally hours before the insurrection to “fight like hell” to overturn the election results.
YouTube and Facebook also banned Trump in the immediate aftermath of the Capitol insurrection.
On Wednesday, Facebook’s oversight board upheld the company’s decision to ban Trump. But it ruled that it was not “appropriate” to implement an indefinite ban, saying that the social media platform has six months to either restore the account or make the former president’s suspension permanent.
Unsurprisingly, Trump threw a fit in response to the decision.
“What Facebook, Twitter and Google have done is a total disgrace and an embarrassment to our Country,” Trump said in a statement.
