Twitter Loses $3.2 Billion In Share Price Value After Donald Trump Ban

Twitter has lost a hell of a lot of market value following its decision to permanently ban Donald Trump's account.

The social media app made the difficult move on Friday night local time to suspend the US President's profile over fears he would continue to incite violence in America. Facebook also banned Trump until after Joe Biden's inauguration and warned the move could be made permanent.

According to Sky News Australia, Twitter shares plummeted a whopping 10 per cent in premarket trading on Monday (January 11), which equates to around AUD$3.2 billion. The ABC said Twitter stocks have regained some losses overnight.

Facebook was also affected, with shares falling 4 per cent and Google losing 2 per cent in value.

The fall on Facebook's market cap is estimated to be worth AUD$43.6 billion, according to Business Insider.

The move to ban the President worried investors who thought Twitter was going to be regulated further in the future, which could alienate users and see them jump to other apps.

Michael Hewson, chief analyst at CMC Markets UK, said: "These moves, whether you consider them justified or not, could well see them lose further users if they become seen as arbiters of what is considered politically correct or acceptable."

Many have questioned whether social media companies need to reassess how they let their users post after the Capitol riots were largely organised and fuelled online.

Twitter responded to the concerns and said: "After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence.

"In the context of horrific events this week, we made it clear on Wednesday that additional violations of the Twitter Rules would potentially result in this very course of action.

"Our public interest framework exists to enable the public to hear from elected officials and world leaders directly. It is built on a principle that the people have a right to hold power to account in the open.

"However, we made it clear going back years that these accounts are not above our rules and cannot use Twitter to incite violence. We will continue to be transparent around our policies and their enforcement."

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: News, Social Media, Donald Trump

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

@stewartperrie