Twitter's Trump ban is permanent and won't lift if he runs for office again, exec says

Twitter's chief financial officer says the former president will remain tweetless.

Rae Hodge Former senior editor

Rae Hodge was a senior editor at CNET. She led CNET's coverage of privacy and cybersecurity tools from July 2019 to January 2023. As a data-driven investigative journalist on the software and services team, she reviewed VPNs, password managers, antivirus software, anti-surveillance methods and ethics in tech. Prior to joining CNET in 2019, Rae spent nearly a decade covering politics and protests for the AP, NPR, the BBC and other local and international outlets.

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Rae Hodge

Feb. 10, 2021 10:34 a.m. PT

2 min read

Donald Trump and social media — James Martin/CNET

Whether he ever runs for office again, it looks like former President Donald Trump will remain perma-banned from Twitter. In a Wednesday appearance on CNBC's Squawk Box, Twitter Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal said the company's policies on permanent user bans wouldn't be overturned, no matter the individual banned.

"The way our policies work, when you're removed from the platform, you're removed from the platform, whether you're a commentator, you're a CFO or you are a former or current public official," Segal said of a potential Trump return. "Our policies are designed to make sure that people are not inciting violence, and if anybody does that we have to remove them from the service and our policies don't allow people to come back."

"The way our policies work, when you're removed from the platform, you're removed from the platform whether you're a commentator, you're a CFO or you are a former or current public official," says $TWTR CFO @nedsegal on if President Trump's account could be restored. pic.twitter.com/ZZxascb9Rz
— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) February 10, 2021

During his four years as president, Trump was a notoriously provocative tweeter who redefined politics by using Twitter to sidestep official channels and traditional media.

Twitter banned Trump on Jan. 8, warning that the then-president's tweets risked inciting further violence after he'd whipped up a mob that invaded the US Capitol building on Jan. 6. In the run-up to the ban, the social network had routinely obscured misleading and policy-violating tweets from Trump with a warning label that included a link to more information or context.

Segal's remarks come as Congress works through a historic second impeachment trial of Trump, the only US president to be impeached twice. If he's convicted by the Senate (which is far from a done deal), the chamber can then also vote to ban him from holding public office in the future. Trump has floated the idea of running for president again in 2024.