San Francisco (AFP)
Supporters of Donald Trump had called for a demonstration on Monday outside Twitter's headquarters in San Francisco to protest the closure of the outgoing president's account on this social network, but only a handful of them responded, local media report.
Messages posted over the weekend on a popular far-right internet forum, TheDonald.win, called on supporters of the ex-real estate mogul to rally outside the Twitter headquarters, with some urging attendees to congregate. use plastic handcuffs to carry out "citizen arrests", according to the daily San Francisco Chronicle.
Despite the fact that most Twitter employees have been telecommuting since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and their offices are virtually deserted, the San Francisco police took these threats seriously and deployed dozens of them on Monday morning. officers near the building, protected by security barriers.
According to numerous local media on site, only a handful of protesters and counter-protesters finally made the trip.
"I don't like to be censored. And I have a feeling that conservative voices are being censored," one of the Trumpists told KTVU television.
For his part, Kenneth Lundgreen, 71, held up a sign proclaiming "Outsmart Trump's coup attempts" and explained that he wanted to physically oppose a possible "agitated crowd", such as the one who stormed the Capitol in Washington last week.
Shortly after the intrusion of supporters of Donald Trump in the precincts of the American Parliament, Twitter announced that it would close the latter's personal account, facing the "risk of further incitement to violence".
Other platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat, have in the process suspended the accounts of the billionaire conservative for an indefinite period.
Donald Trump immediately accused Twitter of "muzzling freedom of expression" by preventing it from addressing its some 88 million subscribers.
This Twitter decision was strongly criticized by supporters of Donald Trump but also by various personalities outside the United States, such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who deemed it "problematic".
© 2021 AFP