Jack Dorsey reportedly banned Trump's Twitter account while he was on vacation in French Polynesia

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Jack Dorsey reportedly banned Trump's Twitter account while he was on vacation in French Polynesia
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.Burhaan Kinu/Hindustan Times via Getty Images
  • Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was on vacation in French Polynesia as the company debated about how to handle President Donald Trump's Twitter account, according to The New York Times.
  • Dorsey reportedly called into meetings as the company worked internally to manage the fallout following Trump supporters' violent insurrection in Washington, DC, last Wednesday.
  • On Friday evening, Twitter announced that it was permanently banning Trump's account.
  • Dorsey has traveled often throughout the pandemic. In August, he was spotted in the Hamptons with Jay-Z, and in November he was photographed in Hawaii with the music mogul and actor Sean Penn.
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Jack Dorsey was reportedly on vacation in the South Pacific as Twitter debated what to do about President Donald Trump's Twitter account following riots at the Capitol last week.

According to The New York Times' Kate Conger and Mike Isaac, Dorsey was vacationing on an island in French Polynesia, calling into meetings as Twitter worked internally to handle the fallout from the violent insurrection. On Friday evening, the company decided to permanently ban Trump's account "due to the risk of further incitement of violence," the company said in a tweet.

A spokesperson for Twitter declined to comment on Dorsey's vacation.

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French Polynesia is two hours behind San Francisco, where Twitter is based, but the time difference likely didn't bother Dorsey. The CEO is known for waking up around 5 a.m. each day and, prior to the coronavirus pandemic, walking five miles to Twitter's headquarters, a journey that took about an hour and 20 minutes.

Dorsey is typically based in San Francisco's Sea Cliff neighborhood, an exclusive enclave where he owns $30 million worth of real estate. But the billionaire, who is worth an estimated $13.8 billion, has been traveling throughout the pandemic: In August, he was spotted on a walk in the Hamptons with Jay-Z. Soon after, he was photographed on a yacht with the music mogul, Beyoncé, and their three children.

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In November, Dorsey traveled to Hawaii, where he was seen on the beach with Jay-Z and accompanied by actor Sean Penn. Last month, reports surfaced that Dorsey's other venture, Square, has held talks to purchase Jay-Z's streaming service, Tidal.

Jack Dorsey reportedly banned Trump's Twitter account while he was on vacation in French Polynesia
President Donald Trump speaks at a rally on January 6, 2021.AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

Twitter's decision to ban Trump on Friday followed a temporary shut-down of his account last Wednesday. As police worked to contain the rioters in Washington, DC, Trump posted a video on the platform in which he made a baseless claim of election fraud and told the rioters, "Go home. We love you; you're very special."

Twitter said it was locking down Trump's account until he deleted the tweet, along with two others, which he did sometime after the riots ended on Wednesday. The deletion started a 12-hour clock, after which Trump could regain access to his account. But on Friday, Trump posted a tweet calling the rioters "American Patriots" and announcing that he won't attend President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration.

Twitter said in a blog post about the ban that those statements, when viewed in the context of the riots and Trump's baseless claims of election fraud, violated its policies against glorifying violence.

Following the ban, Twitter has lost about $5 billion in market value.

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