Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh reportedly deleted his Twitter account shortly after President Donald Trump was banned from the platform on Friday night.
The link to Limbaugh’s account, which had amassed more than half a million followers before being deleted, now leads to a page that reads: “This account doesn’t exist[.] Try searching for another.” Rumors swirled that Twitter had suspended the account, but a spokesperson for Twitter told both CNN reporter Oliver Darcy and Fox News reporter Joseph Wulfsohn that whoever controls the account deactivated it.
“A Twitter spokesperson tells me the company did not suspend Rush Limbaugh’s account. In other words, it appears Limbaugh (or someone acting on his behalf) deactivated it,” Darcy tweeted.
A Twitter spokesperson tells me the company did not suspend Rush Limbaugh’s account. In other words, it appears Limbaugh (or someone acting on his behalf) deactivated it.
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) January 9, 2021
Wulfsohn tweeted, “Twitter SPOX: ‘I would like to correct that He is not suspended. The user deactivated their account.'”
Twitter SPOX: "I would like to correct that He is not suspended. The user deactivated their account."
Deleted previous tweet. pic.twitter.com/30agl2Aqbl
— Joseph A. Wulfsohn (@JosephWulfsohn) January 9, 2021
The reason behind the deletion of Limbaugh’s Twitter account is unknown, but it follows the social media company banning the president on Friday. When Trump attempted to tweet from other accounts, such accounts were also suspended.
On Thursday, a day after the Capitol riots, Limbaugh said, “We’re supposed to be horrified by the protesters. There’s a lot of people out there calling for the end of violence. A lot of conservatives, social media, who say that any violence or aggression at all is unacceptable regardless of the circumstances. I am glad Sam Adams, Thomas Paine, the actual Tea Party guys, the men at Lexington and Concord, didn’t feel that way.”
Twitter clamped down on Trump on Friday after the chaos at the Capitol earlier this week. As The Daily Wire reported:
President Donald Trump started tweeting again late on Friday night by using his official White House account following Twitter’s ban on his personal account.
“As I have been saying for a long time, 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,” Trump wrote. “Twitter may be a private company, but without the government’s gift of Section 230 they would not exist for long. I predicted this would happen. We have been negotiating with various other sites, and will have a big announcement soon, while we also look at the possibilities of building out our own platform in the near future.”
“We will not be SILENCED! Twitter is not about FREE SPEECH,” he concluded. “They are all about promoting a Radical Left platform where some of the most vicious people in the world are allowed to speak freely. STAY TUNED!”
Twitter deleted the tweets that Trump posted to his government account within approximately 5 minutes of the tweets going up.
Twitter announced late on Friday afternoon that it was banning Trump in the wake of the riot that broke out in Washington, D.C., this week following a rally that the president held.