The San Francisco Police Department on Monday morning braced for the possibility of a protest outside Twitter headquarters in response to the social media company permanently suspending President Donald Trump. But the protest never materialized.
On Sunday night, there was a single police patrol vehicle parked near the office at 1355 Market St., and more officers were there Monday morning.
In a statement, the SFPD said, “We will have sufficient resources available to respond to any demonstrations as well as calls for service citywide.”
But people who live nearby dudn't expect a large crowd.
“I think if it would be people coming in from outside the city, more than likely, but there hasn’t been much reports of that so far,” said Andy Wibbels, who lives near Twitter.
Neighbors trust the police to handle the situation, as tensions around the country remain high.
California
“I think, especially with what happened last Wednesday, you cannot afford to be complacent,” said Ron Zamora, who also lives near Twitter.
Wednesday’s riot at the Capitol has set off a chain reaction of events leading to Monday’s possible protest outside Twitter headquarters.
Trump’s supporters say they’re being treated unfairly.
“When the company has an unequal application of the terms of service, you’re going to get a response,” said John Dennis, San Francisco Republican Party chairman. “It’s gonna happen. So I don’t know the specifics of this protest, but I suspect you’re going to see a lot of them.”
Dennis said devoted Trump supporters are also being unfairly booted from Twitter. He said he’s noticed a drop of followers in the thousands over the last few days.
What’s more, the conservative app Parler, which many Trump supporters were starting to use, went temporarily dark Monday when Amazon booted the site off its servers.
Twitter has suspended some people because the platform said, like Trump, there are concerns that those users are planning violence.
But it’s not clear if large numbers of people are being suspended or simply leaving to other platforms.
