On Wednesday, the National Archives and Records Administration confirmed that they are working to create an online archive where former President Trump’s personal tweets will be made publicly available, even as Twitter declared that they are still banned from their platform.
NARA claims to have a close working relationship with Twitter but when it comes to Trump’s tweets, things are complicated due to the social media platform’s censorship of the former president.
“NARA intends to provide public access to all captured and preserved Presidential Record social media, including any blocked or deleted tweets that have been transferred to us,” a National Archives spokesperson remarked in a statement.
NARA and Twitter’s archives are reportedly separate entities. Only the National Archives will be sharing Trump’s more than 26,000 tweets.
NEW: The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration says it is working to make publicly available all tweets from former Pres. Trump's suspended account – Fox News
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) April 7, 2021
“Twitter is solely responsible for the decision of what content is available on their platform,” NARA’s statement declared. “NARA works closely with Twitter and other social media platforms to maintain archived social accounts from each presidential administration, but ultimately the platform owners can decline to host these accounts. NARA preserves platform-independent copies of social media records and is working to make that content available to the public.”
Twitter is doubling down on its ban on Trump’s tweets claiming they would maintain records “in accordance with appropriate laws” but that they have no intention of reactivating any of his tweets or the @realDonaldTrump account following his ban in January.
“I can confirm that our teams have been working with NARA on the preservation of Tweets from @realDonaldTrump, as is standard with any administration transition and as we’ve done previously,” Twitter spokesperson Trenton Kennedy noted in an email to Politico. “Given that we permanently suspended @realDonaldTrump, the content from the account will not appear on Twitter as it did previously or as archived administration accounts do currently, regardless of how NARA decides to display the data it has preserved. Administration accounts that are archived on the service are accounts that were not in violation of the Twitter Rules.”
Trump’s Twitter account was banned just two days after the Jan. 6 riot. The social media giant attempted to tie two of his tweets to the protest as justification for its censorship. They claim the tweets violate its “Glorification of Violence” policy.
“Our determination is that the two Tweets above are likely to inspire others to replicate the violent acts that took place on January 6, 2021, and that there are multiple indicators that they are being received and understood as encouragement to do so,” Twitter posited.
Free speech advocates on both sides of the political aisle were alarmed by the move by Twitter to silence a president.
“Look, you have a racist, sexist, xenophobe, pathological liar, an authoritarian … a bad news guy,” Senator Bernie Sanders told New York Times columnist Ezra Klein. “But if you’re asking me do I feel particularly comfortable that the then president of the United States could not express his views on Twitter? I don’t feel comfortable about that.”
On “cancel culture,” and the power of tech platforms: pic.twitter.com/piEPMOopmr
— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) March 23, 2021
“Big Tech wants to cancel all 75M @realDonaldTrump supporters,” Trump 2020 campaign adviser Jason Miller tweeted in January. “If you don’t think they’re coming for you next, you’re wrong.”
Disgusting. Big Tech wants to cancel all 75M @realDonaldTrump supporters.
If you don’t think they’re coming for you next, you’re wrong.
“Twitter bans President Trump” https://t.co/4inOMm4Jth
— Jason Miller (@JasonMillerinDC) January 8, 2021
The former president had nearly 90 million followers on Twitter when he was banned. During the 2020 presidential election, Twitter started slapping Trump’s tweets with “fact-checking” warnings.
Trump’s presidential Twitter account is still visible on Twitter under @POTUS45.
Conservatives on Twitter sounded off:
America getting a little taste of communism…
— IB/AP Economics (@IBEconomics1) April 8, 2021
If Twitter fails to provide the National Archives w/ Trump's tweets that the WH said were official documents, the DOJ should file suit against Twitter to get a court order to produce them. Failure to do so would make Twitter an aider & abettor to violationhttps://t.co/6nH8pUCumg
— Tom Coleman (@RepTomColeman) April 8, 2021
This should be litigated. As long as we have “official government accounts”….even with the Supreme Court tossing knight vs Trump …
I still feel it’s the strongest case for Twitter as utility pic.twitter.com/u3Svilfa8a
— CV (@ArtistsByChloe) April 8, 2021
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