Trump Responds to Temporary Shutdown of Twitter Account

'I guess the word must finally be getting out-and having an impact,' he says of his tweets
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 3, 2017 1:32 AM CDT
Updated Nov 3, 2017 6:26 AM CDT
On Last Day at Work, Employee Kicks Trump Off Twitter
For 11 minutes, this was the message people trying to find Trump's account saw.   (Twitter)

The world lost President Trump's tweets for a full 11 minutes after a Twitter employee shut his account down on their last day at work. Twitter initially said "human error" was to blame for the account being deactivated around 7pm Thursday, but later tweeted "that this was done by a Twitter customer support employee who did this on the employee's last day." The company promised a full review. The worker—described by Breitbart as a "disgruntled employee" and by Mashable as an "American hero"—has not yet been identified. Trump took note of the incident Friday morning, on Twitter, of course. "My Twitter account was taken down for 11 minutes by a rogue employee," he tweeted. "I guess the word must finally be getting out-and having an impact."

The deactivation initially caused speculation that the account had been shut down for violating Twitter's terms of service. When the truth emerged, many found it hilarious, with Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu promising to buy pizza for the employee. Others, however, said the incident raised some serious question about security and about how many Twitter employees have access to the president's account, the Washington Post reports. "Seriously, what if this person had tweeted about a fictional nuclear strike on North Korea?" tweeted Politico editor-in-chief Blake Hounshell. (Here's why Twitter says Trump can get away with tweets that skirt the site's rules.)

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