Twitter shares fall in first trading session after banning Trump

Social media giant shares opened down on Monday after sites including Twitter and Facebook banned or suspended US President Donald Trump from their platforms.  

The tech companies made the move in the aftermath of riots at the US Capitol last week.  

Shares in Twitter slumped by around 10% on opening in the first trading session since it suspended President Trump, before recovering to around 5% down later in the day.

Twitter saw shares fall harder than social media rivals. Facebook opened around 2% down, and Snap - the company behind Snapchat - opened around 1.5% down.

The greater hit to Twitter is potentially a result of investors worrying that banning Donald Trump will see boycotts on the platform - where the president has voiced his opinions and moves throughout his term in office - due to the decision being perceived by Trump supporters as being politically motivated.

Twitter said it banned the President - who had an account with 88 million followers - after he made “repeated and severe” breaches of its policies and codes.

It announced: “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."

Facebook said it would suspend the politician from the platform for at least the duration of presidency. Trump is due to handover to the new Biden administration on January 20.

Founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has defended the decision.

It came as German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, criticised the sites’s actions.

Merkel said that in banning Trump, the sites had made a “problematic” move on the “fundamental right to free speech”.

She said, via a spokesperson, that it should be down to a country’s laws to restrict online behaviour, rather than decisions being made by private companies.