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Trump’s Twitter deleted by rogue employee

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A search for Trump's Twitter handle led to an empty page

By Bethan Staton, News Reporter

Twitter has blamed Donald Trump's disappearance from the platform on a rogue employee who deleted the President's account on their last day of work.

The internet was seized by a brief spell of panic just before 11pm on Thursday, when the US President's Twitter account disappeared suddenly and without explanation.

For eleven exhilarating minutes, a search for @realDonaldTrump returned only a blue background and the line "sorry that page does not exist".

One of the best moments over the past 9 months. Trump’s twitter shut down briefly by a twitter employee on their last day. Hero. pic.twitter.com/ttUedPkbNM

— Mohamed Hemish (@MohamedHemish) 3 November 2017

The sight sent those who witnessed it into a frenzy of disbelief. Many were overjoyed at the disappearance of one of the platform's most powerful and prolific accounts; others furious at the deactivation.

@jack I need to very seriously tell you that the 70 seconds that Trump's twitter account went away were the happiest 70 seconds of my year.

— Cabel Sasser (@cabel) 2 November 2017

Those few precious minutes were like when Andy played the opera record over the Shawshank PA system.

— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) 2 November 2017

Those seeking an explanation suggested the account had been hacked, or perhaps even suspended by Twitter.

But before the population could fully comprehend the enormity of its absence the President's account returned, without fanfare and as mysteriously it had disappeared.

Twitter quickly responded to the incident, tweeting at first that the account had been inadvertently deactivated due to human error and was being investigated.

Its explanation was soon changed, however, with a second tweet announcing the deactivation had been carried out "by a Twitter customer support employee who did this on the employee's last day

Earlier today @realdonaldtrump’s account was inadvertently deactivated due to human error by a Twitter employee. The account was down for 11 minutes, and has since been restored. We are continuing to investigate and are taking steps to prevent this from happening again.

— Twitter Government (@TwitterGov) 3 November 2017

Through our investigation we have learned that this was done by a Twitter customer support employee who did this on the employee’s last day. We are conducting a full internal review. https://t.co/mlarOgiaRF

— Twitter Government (@TwitterGov) 3 November 2017

Many users responded with glee to the news, praising the unknown former employee as a hero.

Folk hero. Songs should be written about this person.

— Shannon Coulter (@shannoncoulter) 3 November 2017

Others, however, judged the deletion an affront to the principles of free speech, or expressed concern that a customer service employee was apparently able to delete whole twitter accounts at their whim.

It is shocking that some random Twitter employee could shut down the president's account. What if they instead had tweeted fake messages?

— Blake Hounshell (@blakehounshell) 3 November 2017

As the rest of the world struggled to come to terms with the brief absence and swift return of his account, however, Mr Trump seamlessly returned to his usual Twitter form.

In the hours following his short departure The President tweeted zealously about a tax cut roll out, alleged violations of campaign finance laws and James Comey's leadership, as well as promoting an interview with Fox News.

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Source – News.sky.com

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