US: Radio host, Limbaugh deactivates Twitter account after ‘permanent ban’ on Trump

RADIO host Rush Limbaugh’s Twitter account has been deactivated.

Twitter confirmed to USA TODAY that the account wasn’t suspended but “deactivated by the owner.”

Limbaugh is considered the leading conservative talk radio host and has been on the airwaves for more than three decades. He has been an adamant supporter of President Donald Trump and his Twitter account, @RealRLimbaugh, had a similar to the style of Trump’s @realDonaldTrump.

Twitter permanently banned Trump from the social media platform Friday, citing the risk that he would incite further violence. He had 88.6 million followers.

Twitter, which had locked Trump out of his account Wednesday for inflammatory posts after a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol, lifted the suspension the following day after he removed the offending tweets. Twitter warned it would suspend Trump permanently if he continued to violate its rules.

On Thursday, Facebook blocked Trump on Facebook and Instagram after the president incited supporters to storm the nation’s capital. The indefinite ban is at least through the remainder of his term, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said.

Limbaugh, to whom Trump awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom last year, dismissed critics of violence on Thursday.

“There’s a lot of people calling for the end of violence. There’s a lot of conservatives on social media who say that any violence or aggression at all is unacceptable regardless of the circumstances,” the longtime conservative commentator said. “I am glad Sam Adams, Thomas Paine, the actual Tea Party guys, the men at Lexington and Concord didn’t feel that way.”

Limbaugh started the Twitter account in October 2020 and discussed why he joined on his Oct. 13 show, saying that he hates social media and calling it a “cesspool.”

“We are gonna be doubling down. We’re gonna be doing everything we can in these last three weeks to take the message of preserving the American way of life, to take the message that America is a good and decent, it is almost a savior of a country, that it is being maligned, it is being savagely impugned,” Limbaugh said on the show, according to a transcript.

According to Talkers, which tracks audience numbers for talk radio, Limbaugh is the most-listened to radio host in the country, with 15.5 million listeners tuning in weekly as of December 2019.

Trump allies and conservatives have cried censorship over Trump’s ban.

Late Friday, President Trump tweeted from the @POTUS Twitter account, accusing Twitter of silencing him and his supporters. All four tweets were then deleted.

Twitter also permanently suspended the @TeamTrump account for ban evasion, the company said late Friday.

Credits: YAHOO NEWS