Twitter employees lock their accounts fearing backlash

Fearing backlash from supporters of the outgoing US president Donald Trump, some Twitter employees have locked their accounts and the company has even given personal security to some executives.

They have set their accounts to private and scrubbed their online biographies over concerns they may be targeted by Trump supporters, reports the New York Times. In

"Some Twitter executives have been assigned personal security as the company reckons with its decision to bar one of its loudest voices".

More than 300 Twitter employees signed an internal petition calling for a permanent Trump suspension.

The Trump account was permanently suspended from Twitter on January 8, "due to the risk of further incitement of violence."

According to the report, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was earlier not convinced a temporary ban on the president was the right decision.

In a series of tweets last week, Dorsey finally said that banning Trump's account was the right call.

He defended the ban, saying that it was the right move as offline harm as a result of online speech is demonstrably real.

The Twitter ban came after a pro-Trump mob stormed the US Capitol, hoping to stop the certification of Joe Biden's election victory.

"I do not celebrate or feel pride in our having to ban @realDonaldTrump
from Twitter, or how we got here. After a clear warning we'd take this action, we made a decision with the best information we had based on threats to physical safety both on and off Twitter," Dorsey said in one of his tweets.

He blamed Twitter's failure "to promote healthy conversation," acknowledged that Twitter needs to "look critically at inconsistencies of our policy and enforcement".

According to Twitter, more than 70,000 harmful accounts have been suspended as a result of its efforts after the violence in Washington, DC, with many instances of a single individual operating numerous accounts.