The online world stood still late on Thursday night when Donald Trump’s Twitter account vanished into thin air.
Social media users noticed that for a short period of time around 11pm British time @realDonaldTrump – arguably the world’s most infamous handle – was no more.
Of course, this is the platform where Trump takes care of business. His megaphone. His oxygen.
Many of the president’s critics, and even some of his supporters, have decried Trump’s Twitter habits.
And a number of users criticised Twitter for not suspending the president’s account after he purportedly violated the platform’s user guidelines over what some called a clear threat of violence.
In one tweet, the president threatened that North Korea “won’t be around much longer” if the country’s leadership allowed hostile rhetoric against the United States to continue. North Korea’s government called it a declaration of war.
So most enjoyed the break, however brief.
@jack I need to very seriously tell you that the 70 seconds that Trump’s twitter account went away were the happiest 70 seconds of my year.
when you thought Trump’s twitter was deleted but then it came back within 70 seconds pic.twitter.com/InIxdwWErZ
We’ll all remember where we were during the 10 minutes of peace while Donald Trump’s Twitter account was down.
So Donald Trump’s twitter account was shut down. Those 11 minutes was like when Andy played the opera on the Shawshank PA system… pic.twitter.com/2S9Y1TiqWr
November 3, 2017
The account swiftly returned and normal order – such as it is – was restored. But nature abhors a vacuum, and with no explanation ‘why?’, people started to devise there own theories.
Trump’s twitter account vanishing and then reappearing moments later is the best evidence yet that the events of the past 2 years are the result of warring sects of time travellers
November 2, 2017
An hour later, Twitter ’fessed up. It was all “a human error” and the outage was a full 11 minutes.
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
But later still came a more thorough explanation.
It seems that an employee who was leaving the company deleted the account on their last day.
“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,” the company explained. “We are conducting a full internal review.”
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
November 3, 2017
Twitter employee whose last day at work was spent deleting Trump’s Twitter account. pic.twitter.com/0qqMMCrJN7
Trump’s Twitter was deactivated by a “Twitter customer support employee who did this on the employee’s last day.” !!! pic.twitter.com/9xYfL9SAVE
New Twitter employee mistakenly deactivates Donald Trump’s Twitter account pic.twitter.com/gZ50xWC2bo
Exit interview video of the Twitter employee that deactivated Trump’s Twitter pic.twitter.com/biyZp6khhB
And the plaudits rained down on the unnamed ex-Twitter staffer.
Dear Twitter employee who shut down Trump’s Twitter: You made America feel better for 11 minutes. DM me & I will buy you a Pizza Hut pizza. https://t.co/ruzaVBcQp1
November 3, 2017
To the guy who deactivated Trump’s Twitter (even if only temporarily): History will remember you as a hero.