For 11 minutes on Thursday night at 7 PM( ET), the personal Twitter account of the President of the United States was Deactivated. There was much speculation about what had happened on Twitter - was it a simple glitch? In the meantime journalists and Twitter users alike, absolutely lost it.
The @realDonaldTrump account has been active since 2009 and is arguably one of the most influential Twitter profiles currently. In this time Trump has not disappointed with poignant messages regarding politics, war, and immigration.
Who can forget this one?
#FraudNewsCNN #FNN pic.twitter.com/WYUnHjjUjg
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 2, 2017
And this
These inspiring posts caused a surge of Donald Trump Halloween costumes circa 2016 and 2017 because that nightmare has no cultural expiry date.
Who shut the account down?
Although Trump would argue it was either CNN, Hilary Clinton or the haters who deactivated the account, it actually appeared to be a 'mistake' by an employee at Twitter. They said this:
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) November 3, 2017
The announcement was met with a mixed response, a few stating "#Fakenews" and the majority pleading for this error to be a permanent change. Many also asked for this rogue employee to be promoted, honoured and praised!
A few hours later @TwitterGov released this statement
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) November 3, 2017
I think most people can admit to wanting to do something bad on their last day of work because there is technically zero consequences.
This ex-Twitter customer support employee well and truly went out with a bang (see gif below for an excellent representation of how the employee left).
Donald Trump’s Twitter account disappeared for 11 minutes after a Twitter employee on their last day deleted it pic.twitter.com/VuS1FScMxo
— BLK (@BLKdot_) November 3, 2017
What happens to our Twitter security?
Although this action has been revelled in by many, it does make you question how much power and access employees have to a Twitter users profile.
It would suggest that even a high ranking profile like @realDonaldTrump is not safeguarded from certain attacks and even his direct messages could be read and shared.
Twitter had addressed this matter beforehand and stated, "There was a discussion that for verified accounts or high profile ones, there'd be special protections (i.e. "2 keys") but it was never implemented," according to BuzzFeed.
Essentially, a celebrity Twitter profile is as vulnerable as the lowly unverified user. Now, this is common knowledge will Twitter make the changes to protect higher status profiles?
Twitter is yet to make any comment since the last statement regarding the employee.
Prophecy awaiting fulfillment
Well even though it was for 11 fleeting minutes, for some of us this was a prophecy waiting to be fulfilled:
Delete your account. https://t.co/Oa92sncRQY
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 9, 2016
Do you follow @realDonaldTrump on Twitter? Do you enjoy his posts in a horrifyingly so-bad-I can't-not-watch kinda way? Whatever you think of the POTUS it appears he will be around for some time yet!