Iran Develops System to Disinfect Ozone Gas

By

 IFP Editorial Staff

 -

January 9, 2021

An Iranian knowledge-based company has developed a system to disinfect the ozone gas using nanotechnology.

CEO of the firm Bita Mehravi says it is the first time that such a device has been made.

“The disinfection system can be used at home, in industrial settings and in hospitals, and is capable of disinfect the ozone gas,” she said.

She said the ozone gas is detrimental to human health, but has strong antiseptic properties.

“The system’s innovation is that after the disinfection process ends with the help of nanotechnology, ozone is turned into oxygen and will have no hazards for humans and the environment alike,” she noted.

“This apparatus is an environmentally-friendly one, is capable of disinfecting all instruments which are not sensitive to ozone, and has received permits from the Food and Drug Organization as well as the reliable environmental laboratory,” she said.

“No similar systems have been developed so far, and at the moment, we are holding talks with a number of Italian and German companies to open its production line in Europe,” she said.

“This apparatus is very cost-effective and needs no detergents,” the CEO said.

“Among other features of the system is that it creates no sensitivity and it is safe for humans,” she said.

Iran Front Page | Iran News | Latest News from Iran and the World (ifpnews.com)

Those Condemning Trump Today Succumbed to His Lawlessness for 4 Years: Iran

By

 IFP Editorial Staff

 -

January 9, 2021

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has scolded those who are now condemning US President Donald Trump’s assault on the rule of law after succumbing to his lawless bullying for four years.

“Those who succumbed to Trump’s lawless bullying for four years — to protect their skin at OUR people’s expense — now condemn his assault on the rule of law,” Zarif tweeted on Friday.

However, he added, they “still try to use his economic terrorism against Iran as ‘leverage’.”

“If you can’t grow a spine, gain foresight—for your own sake,” he added.

Zarif did not refer to any country or individual by name, but European countries, mainly France, the United Kingdom, and Germany, which were and continue to be a party to the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, had over the course of Trump’s four-year term effectively succumbed to his anti-Iran policies by refusing to uphold their own end of the bargain, citing US pressure.

Less importantly, some US foreign policy columnists, including Thomas L. Friedman and Bret Stephens, have in the past attempted to promote the idea that Biden could use the Trump sanctions as leverage against Iran instead of returning to the Iran deal — as the incoming president has pledged — and terminating those sanctions, which were imposed in violation of the 2015 deal with Iran after Trump unilaterally withdrew his country from the agreement.

Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran deal was not the only time the US president reneged on America’s international commitments. His single term was marked by unilateral pullouts from major international and bilateral accords and organizations.

That lawless attitude came under the spotlight when Trump on Wednesday incited a mob of his supporters to storm the US Capitol building as lawmakers were in the process of confirming the electoral victory of Biden. Trump has refused to concede his defeat even as Biden has garnered a wide margin of Electoral College and popular votes against him in the November 2020 election. The defeated US president has been making baseless accusations that the election was rigged.

During the Wednesday mayhem, armed Trump supporters breached the Capitol as lawmakers took shelter in their offices. While security staff was initially overwhelmed, police were later deployed and ended the chaos. At least five people were killed during the mob assault.

 Iran Front Page | Iran News | Latest News from Iran and the World (ifpnews.com)

WestJet puts 1,000 workers on leave, citing government's 'incoherent' policy

CALGARY — The CEO of WestJet Airlines Ltd. is laying the blame squarely on "incoherent" policy from Ottawa as his carrier cuts staff and flights in response to new COVID-19 testing requirements for passengers returning to Canada.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The Calgary-based airline announced Friday about 1,000 employees will be furloughed, temporarily laid off, put on unpaid leave or have their hours cut, and it will chop about 30 per cent of its capacity for February and March and pull 160 domestic departures from its schedule.

Trip cancellations and reductions in new bookings began immediately after the federal government warned of the inbound testing rules and continued requirement for a 14-day quarantine on Dec. 31, WestJet CEO Ed Sims said in a statement.

"The entire travel industry and its customers are again on the receiving end of incoherent and inconsistent government policy,"' he said.

"We have advocated over the past 10 months for a co-ordinated testing regime on Canadian soil, but this hasty new measure is causing Canadian travellers unnecessary stress and confusion and may make travel unaffordable, unfeasible and inaccessible for Canadians for years to come."

The new flight cuts mean WestJet will have reduced flights by more than 80 per cent compared with the same time last year, it said.

International capacity will be down 93 per cent year over year and only five daily flights will be offered compared with 100 last year. Overall, the airline will offer 150 daily departures, returning to levels not seen since 2001, it said.

WestJet said it currently has 5,700 active and 5,200 inactive employees, down from over 14,000 before the pandemic erupted.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday pointed out $1.5 billion in aid has flowed to the aviation industry through the federal wage subsidy and other relief measures, though none were specific to the ailing sector.

“People shouldn’t be travelling, and that of course is a direct challenge for the airline industry to manage through. At the same time we’ve made it very clear that we expect people to be reimbursed (for cancelled flights), we expect regional routes to be protected,” Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa.

The government warned in a tweet Friday afternoon that hundreds of passengers could be stranded in Jamaica indefinitely: "In #Jamaica? You may have a lot of trouble getting a #COVID19 test."

The country has reduced testing capacity, Ottawa's travel advisory says.

WestJet issued an "urgent notice" to passengers slated to fly home this weekend from Montego Bay, where there is a "lack of testing capacity" the company said. It said travellers in Jamaica were having trouble finding anywhere to book a test.

Thirty-six flights are scheduled to depart Jamaica for Canada on five different airlines — four of them Canadian — between Friday and Jan. 17, according to flight data firm Cirium.

Video: New COVID testing rules for air travelers (Global News)

The federal government said last week that Canada-bound air passengers would have to provide proof of a recent negative COVID-19 test result in order to board their flight — a requirement that took effect on Thursday.

WestJet said it had to deny boarding to 32 passengers on its six international flights into Canada on Thursday.

The travellers were turned away due to improper tests — antigen or antibody tests, rather than the required PCR test common in Canada and involving a deep nasal swab — no test at all, or one taken more than 72 hours before departure, spokeswoman Morgan Bell said.

“Our team on the ground has rebooked guests affected and is assisting with finding eligible tests whenever possible … to ensure they can return to Canada at a later date,” Bell said.

Air Transat denied boarding to 10 passengers who did not have a PCR test on its three northbound flights Thursday. A dozen more travellers were turned away on a flight from Paris on Friday morning.

“In addition, for the three flights, we observed a significant number of no-shows, which we cannot explain with certainty. We will follow the evolution of the situation closely in the coming days,” said Transat spokesman Christophe Hennebelle.

“There will be some stranded passengers, unfortunately – a little bit more heads-up and co-operation may have helped preventing this.”

He added Air Transat is considering adjustments to its schedule but noted its program is already minimal, moving more than 90 per cent fewer passengers in December than in the same month last year.

Air Canada said it is evaluating its schedule in view of stifled demand from ongoing travel restrictions and quarantine rules, but had no changes to announce.

However, airline industry consultant Robert Kokonis said there's no doubt it will have to enact similar measures.

"It's the perfect storm," he said. "It's arrival testing that was sprung on us with little information, with short notice, combined with the continuation of a 14-day quarantine, leading to a lot of this pain."

The cutbacks at WestJet are the result of a "continued attack" on airlines without compensation, said Chris Rauenbusch, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees local that represents cabin crew members at WestJet.

Demand — already low amid federal guidance against all non-essential travel — has "evaporated" since the policy was announced on Dec. 31, Rauenbusch said.

“We completely understand the need for public health measures during a pandemic like this,” he said. “The fundamental problem we have is the employer wasn’t consulted until after the public announcement.”

WestJet, which was bought by Onex Corp. in 2019, joined Air Canada, Air Transat and Sunwing Airlines said, along with the National Airlines Council of Canada and the International Air Transportation Association, in unsuccessfully asking Ottawa for an 11-day extension to implement the new rules.

With a file from Anita Balakrishnan in Toronto.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 8, 2021.

Companies in this story: (TSX:ONEX, TSX:AC)

Dan Healing and Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press

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‘Coward’: MAGA internet turns on Trump

The president acknowledged his defeat and urged for political reconciliation. His online faithful didn’t take it well.


President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Dalton, Ga. | Brynn Anderson/AP Photo


By TINA NGUYEN

01/08/2021

After years of fidelity, Donald Trump's most ardent online fans have finally turned on him.

All it took was for the president to acknowledge the reality of his loss a little over a day after they, the MAGA faithful, stormed the Capitol in a violent attempt to stop the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s win.

“People were willing to die for this man and he just threw them all under the bus. That’s the only thing that’s shameful about the events of the past 36 hours,” Nick Fuentes, the host of the America First podcast and the unofficial leader of the white nationalist Groyper Army, angrily tweeted, shortly after Trump released a video Thursday night in which he conceded that Biden would be the next president and called for political reconciliation.


Cassandra Fairbanks, a prominent MAGA activist, tweeted: “[He] tells angry people to march to the capitol [and then] proceeds to throw his supporters under the bus.”


> tells angry people to march to the Capitol

>> proceeds to throw his supporters under the bus https://t.co/Kgd1OAyeiW— Cassandra Fairbanks (@CassandraRules) January 8, 2021

Jacob Wohl, the political dirty trickster known for failed plots to incriminate Trump critics, reposted her Tweet on his Parler page.

And when far-right stunt journalist and failed congressional candidate Laura Loomer posted Trump’s concession video on Parler — “It’s over,” Loomer bemoaned, “Life is about to become very hard for conservatives in America” — the people in her replies were aghast that she acknowledged Trump’s own words. “He DID NOT CONCEDE! ITS HIS NEW ADMINISTRATION that will be coming in,” one respondent wrote, a sentiment repeated ad nauseam down her feed.

The despondency among the MAGA faithful online represented perhaps the sharpest break the community has ever made with a president they’ve exalted. But it also prompted a familiar brand of skepticism that has marked the past four years: Was Trump merely trying to placate his establishment handlers? Or did he truly betray the MAGA movement, days after several of his followers died while following his instructions to storm the Capitol?


In the past, Trump had been able to keep his online devotees close by swinging back into their good graces, normally with a pot-stirring tweet or the announcement of a controversial right-wing policy. But just hours after the president released his concession video, many expressed shock that he may have closed the book on them forever.

QAnon conspiracy theorists, praying for years that Trump would flush Satan-worshipping pedophile elites out of Washington, tore apart any scrap of data from the video to prove that he was playing one final trick. They subjected the time stamps to numerology, thinking that there was a secret message encoded.

“In no way did Trump say he conceded. He said: transitioning to a new Admin. As in, he gonna clear this one out and bring a new one,” tweeted We The Inevitable, a conspiracy account, getting more than 3,000 retweets within the hour. The account’s followers agreed that this was surely a sign that he was getting rid of Vice President Mike Pence — now cast as a MAGA traitor after participating in the certification of Biden’s win — and that on Jan. 20, retired Gen. Michael Flynn, now a full-fledged QAnon patriot, would replace him in Trump’s second term.

And there was anger. It was directed at Trump for letting things get this far. Over on Parler, the social media platform beloved by the MAGA community for its lax moderation policies, users erupted in a fury, calling him a number of expletives, a “dildo,” and “100% THE SWAMP.”

Some tried to distance themselves from Trump despite their years of activity in MAGAworld, while aiming to redirect their followers’ anger at the next administration. “Yes there were issues. Call those out. Yes after FISA fraud and hoax after hoax, put pressure on Democrats and recognize they have no moral authority,” posted Mike Cernovich, a pizzagate conspiracist who was once nearly an investigative journalist. “But never, ever, go all in Trump.”




Trump, facing removal threats, concedes election

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Others accepted the loss and showed appreciation for Trump’s remarks.

“Thank you @realDonaldTrump. We tried our best to uncover the truths in our electoral system. We learned a lot,” tweeted Ron Watkins, the former administrator of 8Kun, the forum that continues to host “Q drops” from the mysterious figure at the center of QAnon. “As Americans, we will support our president on January 20 and beyond.”

But the commentary was not without its share of conspiracy. A popular thread held that the Capitol rioters were actually antifa in disguise, there to trick the public into turning against the MAGA faithful and Trump himself. (Antifa is short for "anti-facists" and is an umbrella description of far left-leaning militant groups that resist neo-Nazis and white supremacists.) There was hope as well that Trump was merely biding his time. They analyzed every word of his video announcement and noticed, to their glee, that he did not formally acknowledge Joe Biden’s win — just merely that a new administration would take over on Jan. 20.

And then, as despair was kicking in, Trump gave them what they needed: a digital attaboy for their support.

“The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future,” Trump tweeted on Friday morning. “They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!”

And just like that, the faith was restored. “He says GIANT VOICE which are used in military installations to to alert everyone to EMERGENCIES in the area,” tweeted pro-QAnon account Copious MQ. It was retweeted 700 times within minutes.

“[I'm] feeling much better, for a minute I thought I was alone in my thinking,” one account replied.

One Planet Summit kickstarts year of crucial environment talks

The endangered Crowned Lemur. So far, efforts to protect

   

and restore nature on a global scale have failed spectacularly 

Martin Schutt dpa/AFP/F

Paris (AFP)

Global leaders will try to reignite international environmental diplomacy on Monday, with a biodiversity summit that launches a critical year for efforts to stem the devastating effects of global warming and species loss.

Momentum on climate and biodiversity stalled in 2020 as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, a health crisis that experts say illustrates the many diverse dangers of environmental destruction.

The One Planet Summit, a largely virtual event hosted by France in partnership with the United Nations and the World Bank, will include French President Emmanuel Macron, UN chief Antonio Guterres, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and EU chief Ursula Von der Leyen.

Organisers want to lay the groundwork for crunch UN biodiversity talks -- postponed because of the pandemic -- that are set to be held in China in October and will see nearly 200 nations attempt to thrash out new goals to preserve Earth's battered ecosystems.

France hopes next week's summit will bring together issues around climate and the protection of ecosystems, a source from the Elysee Palace told AFP, adding that along with global warming, preservation of biodiversity is "our collective life insurance".

So far, efforts to protect and restore nature on a global scale have failed spectacularly.

The planet is on the cusp of a mass extinction event in which species are disappearing at 100 to 1,000 times the normal "background" rate, most scientists agree.

The UN's science advisory panel for biodiversity warned in a landmark 2019 report that one million species face extinction, due mostly to habitat loss and over-exploitation.

Human activity, it concluded, had "severely degraded" three-quarters of ice-free land on the planet.

- 'Climate Emergency' -

The picture on climate change is just as dire.

Under the 2015 Paris deal, the world's nations vowed to cap global warming "well below" 2C, and 1.5C if possible.

With just over 1C of warming so far, the world has seen a crescendo of deadly droughts, heatwaves, flood-inducing rainfall, and super storms made more destructive by rising seas.

The European Union's climate monitoring service has said 2020 tied 2016 as the hottest year on record.

Guterres warned last month that nations were not doing enough to avoid devastating temperature rises and urged world leaders to declare a "climate emergency" in their countries.

The UN's next major climate summit, COP26, was also postponed because of the pandemic and is now due to be held in November.

Participants at Monday's talks are "ready to demonstrate that their commitments are leading to concrete actions to preserve and restore biodiversity, and to lead systemic transformations of economies", according to a summit statement.

Leaders will present initiatives on four themes -- the protection of terrestrial and marine ecosystems, agro-ecology, funding for biodiversity and the link between deforestation, species and human health.

Last October, the UN's biodiversity panel warned future pandemics will happen more often, kill more people and wreak even worse damage to the global economy than Covid-19 without a fundamental shift in how humans treat nature.

The summit will also launch the High Ambition Coalition -- a group of 45 countries led by Costa Rica, France and Britain -- which aims to secure a global agreement to protect at least 30 percent of the planet's land and oceans by 2030.

© 2021 AFP

I HAVE NO MOUTH AND I MUST SCREAM
Twitter permanently bans Donald Trump over Capitol violence

Twitter has permanently suspended President Donald Trump's account after the violence at the Capitol building. The company cited the risk of further incitement in its decision.

Twitter said Trump's account was suspended "due to the first of future incitement of violence"

Twitter has announced it is permanently suspending President Donald Trump's account following the Capitol violence.

Twitter said late on Friday night that it was banning Trump's account "due to the risk of further incitement of violence."
 

This is a breaking news story. More to follow.

UPDATED

 Twitter said Trump's account was suspended "due to the first of future incitement of violence"

Twitter has announced it is permanently suspending President Donald Trump's personal account, @realDonaldTrump, and the @TeamTrump campaign account following the Capitol violence.

Twitter said late on Friday night that it was banning Trump's account "due to the risk of further incitement of violence."
 

"In the context of horrific events this week, we made it clear on Wednesday that additional violations of the Twitter Rules would potentially result in this very course of action," Twitter said in a statement. 

Trump calls suspension a ban on free speech

Trump tried to bypass the ban on Friday night by tweeting from @POTUS, the official US government account for the country’s leader.

Trump took to the official @POTUS account to accuse Twitter of "trying to silence me."

"Twitter has gone further and further in banning free speech, and tonight, Twitter employees have coordinated with the Democrats and the Radical Left in removing my account from their platform, to silence me -- and YOU, the 75,000,000 great patriots who voted for me," he said.

The tweets were subsequently deleted as Twitter does not allow using another account to evade a suspension.

Twitter's decision comes hours after Trump gained access to his Twitter account after being temporarily suspended from the microblogging site on Thursday. The permanent ban keeps the president from using what was one of his most-common means of directly addressing the public and making policy as well as personal statements.

According to the Twitter statement, on Friday Trump tweeted:

"The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!"

This was followed by another tweet, where he announced that he will not attend President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration.  

"To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th."

Twitter said it is suspending the account, which had more than 88 million followers, over violation of its policy against the glorification of violence. 

"After assessing the language in these Tweets against our Glorification of Violence policy, we have determined that these Tweets are in violation of the Glorification of Violence Policy and the user @realDonaldTrump should be immediately permanently suspended from the service

Trump also banned on Facebook

Trump was also "indefinitely" banned from Facebook and its subsidiary Instagram on Thursday, with the pressure building on social media platforms to ban the outgoing president. 

The call follows Wednesday's US Capitol storming, which saw pro-Trump supporters disrupting a joint congressional session in Washington DC to confirm President-elect Joe Biden's 2020 election win.

Whether to address matters of diplomacy or scathing attacks on rivals, Trump has used social media as his bull-horn throughout his presidency. 

Social media continues purge

Google suspended alt-right social networking service, Parler, from its Play Store late on Friday evening over posts that could further fuel violence, according to reports by Politico and The New York Times.

The suspension comes as tech giant Apple also mulls a ban on Parler.

Apple has reportedly given Parler 24 hours to implement a plan to fully moderate its platform, failing which it could face an ouster from Apple's App Store.

According to BuzzFeed News, Apple wrote to Parler over complaints that the service had been used to plan and coordinate the Capitol storming.

Earlier on Friday, Twitter also permanently evicted former Trump aides Michael Flynn and Sidney Powell for pushing far-right conspiracy theories and QAnon's content.

"Given the renewed potential for violence surrounding this type of behavior in the coming days, we will permanently suspend accounts that are solely dedicated to sharing QAnon content," Twitter said.

Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser and Sidney Powell, an ex-Trump campaign lawyer, have both raised doubts over the president’s defeat. 

Reactions to ban

While many on Twitter celebrated the ban, Donald Trump, Jr., lashed out at Twitter over the suspension of his father's account, saying "free speech no longer exists" in the country.

He said Trump's account was banned while dictatorial regimes are allowed to have a presence on Twitter, "with no issue despite threatening genocide to entire countries."

Jason Miller — a senior adviser to Trump and the chief spokesperson for his 2016 presidential campaign — called Twitter "disgusting" in a tweet addressed to the platform's co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey.

Jason Miller

@JasonMillerinDC

.@Twitter is disgusting. These people would rather empower a murderous, anti-Semitic terrorist than allow free speech for the duly-elected President of the United States and the 75M people who voted for him. They’re coming for you next...why do you love terrorists, @jack?

5:45 PM · Jan 8, 2021

3.5K

2.2K people are Tweeting about this

Twitter permanently suspends Trump's account

 "due to the risk of further incitement of violence"

Issued on: 09/01/2021 - 00:55

A photo illustration shows the suspended Twitter account of U.S. President Donald Trump on a smartphone at the White House briefing room in Washington, U.S., January 8, 2021. 

© REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

Text by: NEWS WIRES

Twitter Inc said on Friday that it has permanently suspended U.S. President Donald Trump's account due to the risk of further incitement of violence following the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.

The suspension of Trump's account, which had more than 88 million followers, silences his primary megaphone days before the end of his term and follows years of debate about how social media companies should moderate the accounts of powerful global leaders.

"After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence," the company said in a tweet.

It was the first time Twitter has banned a head of state, the company confirmed.

Social media companies have moved swiftly to crack down on Trump and some of his prominent right-wing allies and supporters in the wake of the turmoil in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, which led to five deaths.

Trump has repeatedly used Twitter and other platforms to claim his defeat in the Nov. 3 election was due to widespread voter fraud and to share other conspiracy theories, and had urged supporters to come to Washington on Wednesday and march on the Capitol to protest the election result.

Facebook Inc said earlier this week it was suspending his account through until at least the end of his presidential term.

The Republican president is due to hand over to Democratic President-elect Joe Biden on Jan. 20.

In a blog post on Friday, Twitter said that two of the president's tweets posted that day were in violation of its policy against the glorification of violence.

Twitter had temporarily blocked Trump's account on Wednesday following the siege of Capitol Hill, and warned that additional violations by the president's accounts would result in a permanent suspension.

Trump was required to delete three rule-breaking tweets before his account was unblocked. He returned to Twitter on Thursday with a video acknowledging that Biden would be the next U.S. president.

Twitter said that Trump's tweet that he would not be attending Biden's inauguration was being received by a number of his supporters as confirmation that the November election was not legitimate.

It said another tweet praising "American Patriots" and saying his supporters "will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!" could be seen as "further indication that President Trump does not plan to facilitate an orderly transition."

Critics of major social media platforms, including top Democratic politicians, praised Twitter's move and said it was long overdue, while Trump suppporters expressed outrage.

The president's son, Donald Trump Jr., in a tweet on Friday decried the ban, saying dictators who had threatened genocide continued to have Twitter accounts. He did not provide names.

The White House had no immediate direct comment. The Trump campaign's Twitter account criticized the company for "silencing" the president of the United States.

Using the @POTUS account, Trump said he would look at building his own platform.

'Looting and shooting'

Trump's prolific use of social media helped propel him to the White House in 2016. He has used his personal @realDonaldTrump account, which has sometimes tweeted more than 100 times a day, to reach supporters, spread misinformation and even fire staff.

In a 2017 interview on Fox Business, Trump said "I doubt I would be here if it weren’t for social media, to be honest with you," according to a transcript released by the network.

Both Twitter and Facebook have long afforded Trump special privileges as a world leader, saying that tweets that may violate the company's policies would not be removed because they were in the public interest. They said he would lose access to those privileges upon leaving office, however.

Twitter last year started labeling and putting warnings on Trump's tweets that broke its rules against glorifying violence, manipulated media or sharing potentially misleading information about voting processes.

In May, Twitter affixed a warning label to a Trump tweet about widespread anti-racism protests over the police killing of George Floyd that included the phrase "when the looting starts, the shooting starts." Facebook, which has come under fire from employees and lawmakers for not doing more about Trump's inflammatory posts, declined to act on the same message.

Trump still has access to the official @WhiteHouse and @POTUS accounts but will lose this when his presidential term ends. Asked if Trump could create another account, a Twitter spokeswoman said if the company had reason to believe he was using accounts to evade Friday's suspension, those accounts too could be suspended.

(REUTERS)

Twitter boots Trump to stop violence-sparking 

tweets

Issued on: 09/01/2021 - 

  

This screen grab shows the suspended Twitter account of 

US President Donald Trump on January 8, 2021 - TWITTER/AFP

San Francisco (AFP)

Twitter shut down President Donald Trump's account Friday, booting him from the global service to prevent another attack on the US Capitol building.

Trump had fervently used @realDonaldTrump for proclamations, accusations and misinformation unchallenged for his entire time in office.

Twitter' decision to permanently suspend Trump is considered overdue by critics who argue he has gotten away with abuses, but has inflamed members of the far-right who equate fact-checking with stifling free speech.

"After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account," Twitter said in a blog post explaining its decision, "we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence."

Twitter late Friday blocked efforts by Trump to sidestep the ban.

He fired off tweets from the official presidential account @POTUS, accusing the company of conspiring with the "Radical Left." The social network quickly deleted the tweets.

Trump also tweeted from the @TeamTrump campaign account, which was soon suspended.

"Using another account to try to evade a suspension is against our rules," Twitter told AFP.

"We have taken steps to enforce this with regard to recent Tweets from the @POTUS account."

Twitter blocked Trump temporarily after the deadly attack on the US Capitol Wednesday, warning the suspension could become permanent.

He was suspended Friday after a pair of tweets: in one, Trump vowed that none of his supporters would be "disrespected." In another, he said he would not attend successor Joe Biden's inauguration on January 20, as is customary.

"These two Tweets must be read in the context of broader events in the country and the ways in which the President's statements can be mobilized by different audiences, including to incite violence, as well as in the context of the pattern of behavior from this account in recent weeks," Twitter said.

"We understand the desire to permanently suspend him now," said ACLU senior legislative counsel Kate Ruane.

"But, it should concern everyone when companies like Facebook and Twitter wield the unchecked power to remove people from platforms that have become indispensable for the speech of billions."

Trump has a press team and can easily turn to sympathetic outlets such as Fox News, while other people who could be shut out by the social networks don't have that luxury, Ruane noted.

Social media companies such as Twitter have the right to decide what appears on their platforms and set standards for appropriate content. The First Amendment right to free speech prevents governments from stifling expression and does not apply to private businesses.

- Talk of new attack -

Twitter said it also factored in that plans for more armed protests have been proliferating on and off the service, including a proposed second attack on the US Capitol and state capitol buildings on January 17.

Trump's tweeted statement about not attending the Inauguration has been received by some supporters as his continued rejection of the election's legitimacy and a sign that the event would be a "safe target" since he won't be there, according to Twitter.

Supporters also viewed the tweets' wording as praise for those involved in what has been described as a coup attempt and indication he does not plan to yield power to President-elect Biden, Twitter said in the post.

"We are living Orwell's 1984," Donald Trump Jr. tweeted from his account. "This is absolute insanity!"

- Fact-check fury -

Trump, who at 81.7 million followers had one of Twitter's 10 most popular accounts, preferred using the platform to get out his message without submitting himself to questions from reporters.

But the US leader has been at war with his favored social media platform since the presidential election, after Twitter took the unprecedented decision to fact-check some of his tweets.

Twitter confirmed Friday that several hundred employees signed a letter to chief executive Jack Dorsey saying they were disturbed by the "insurrection" carried out by Trump supporters, who had been rallied by the president.

The employees called for Twitter to assess the role its platform played in Wednesday's events.

- QAnon purge -

Twitter also removed the accounts of Michael Flynn and other high-profile Trump supporters who promoted the QAnon conspiracy theory.

"The accounts have been suspended in line with our policy on Coordinated Harmful Activity," Twitter told AFP.

"Given the renewed potential for violence surrounding this type of behavior in the coming days, we will permanently suspend accounts that are solely dedicated to sharing QAnon content."

Flynn has met with Trump at the White House to collaborate about how to overturn the presidential election results.

Facebook also has banned Trump from the platform "indefinitely" due to his efforts to incite violence at the US Capitol, according to chief executive Mark Zuckerberg.

Zuckerberg said a one-day ban imposed on Trump's accounts on Facebook and Instagram was extended because of Trump's "use of our platform to incite violent insurrection against a democratically elected government."

The announcement came after the outgoing president was locked out of all major social media platforms due to his false claims about the legitimacy of his loss to Biden, and for inciting the angry mob that stormed the US Capitol.

Google pulls 'free-speech' app Parler for 'egregious content'

Issued on: 09/01/2021 -

Google pulls Parler from app shop for 'egregious content'. 

© Olivier DOULIERY AFP/Archivos

Text by: NEWS WIRES


Google said Friday it had pulled the Parler app from its mobile store for allowing "egregious content" that could incite deadly violence like that seen at the US Capitol.

The Parler social network has become a haven for far-right personalities who say they have been censored by other social media platforms.

"We're aware of continued posting in the Parler app that seeks to incite ongoing violence in the US," Google said in a response to an AFP inquiry.

"For us to distribute an app through Google Play, we do require that apps implement robust moderation for egregious content," the company added, referring to its shop for digital content tailored for Android-powered devices.

Policies and enforcement practices that curb posts inciting violence are agreed to by app developers whose software is made available at Google Play, according to the Silicon Valley internet titan.

"In light of this ongoing and urgent public safety threat, we are suspending the app's listings from the Play Store until it addresses these issues," Google said.

Apple has reportedly warned Parler that its software could be removed from the App Store if it doesn't take measures to prevent users from planning illegal, violent activities on the platform such as the deadly attack in Washington.

Conservatives backing President Donald Trump's claims of election malfeasance have sparked a migration to alternative social media sites that have refrained from filtering unverified claims.

The shift has boosted right-wing favorites like Parler, Newsmax and Rumble, which have rejected Facebook and Twitter's approach of labeling and limiting the reach of conspiracy theories.

Facebook and Twitter banned Trump accounts Friday due to fear he would use them to instigate another attack such as the one in the nation's capital on Wednesday.

Sites like Parler have attracted Republican lawmakers as well as the Trump campaign.

As they have become increasingly important to the political conversation, Twitter and Facebook have struggled with manipulation and misinformation, while at the same time seeking to keep their platforms open to a variety of viewpoints.

Parler and similar sites have become a magnet for racist and anti-Semitic tropes along with groups that have been banned from other platforms for posting hateful content or promoting violence.

(AFP)