WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump鈥檚 well-known Twitter account briefly vanished on Thursday evening 鈥� with the social media company blaming 鈥渉uman error by a Twitter employee.鈥�
Visitors to @realDonaldTrump around 7:00 p.m. (2300 GMT) were greeted with the message 鈥淪orry, that page doesn鈥檛 exist!鈥�
鈥淓arlier today @realDonaldTrump鈥檚 account was inadvertently deactivated due to human error by a Twitter employee. The account was down for 11 minutes, and has since been restored,鈥� the official Twitter Government account said.
鈥淲e are continuing to investigate and are taking steps to prevent this from happening again.鈥�
The outspoken US president has 41.7 million followers on his personal Twitter account, from which he blasts his most controversial and attention-grabbing comments 鈥� often in the form of early morning 鈥渢weetstorms.鈥漌ASHINGTON: A Twitter employee on their last day with the company was responsible for taking down Donald Trump鈥檚 account, the social network said Thursday, as the president resumed tweeting after the 11-minute outage.
Visitors to @realDonaldTrump around 7:00 p.m. (2300 GMT) were greeted with the message 鈥淪orry, that page doesn鈥檛 exist!鈥�
Twitter initially said the account had been 鈥渋nadvertently deactivated due to human error,鈥� but later indicated it was done intentionally by a departing worker.
鈥淭hrough our investigation we have learned that this was done by a Twitter customer support employee who did this on the employee鈥檚 last day,鈥� it said.
鈥淲e are conducting a full internal review,鈥� it said on the official Twitter Government account.
The outspoken president has 41.7 million followers on his personal Twitter account, which he uses to blast controversial and attention-grabbing comments.
Trump has even used the social media site to announce policy, and surprised Pentagon chiefs in July by tweeting that transgender people would be barred from serving 鈥渋n any capacity鈥� in the US military, a ban that has since been blocked by a US court.
The outage sparked discussion of the security of Trump鈥檚 account, given the potentially dire consequences of messages falsely attributed to the president.
鈥淚t is shocking that some random Twitter employee could shut down the president鈥檚 account. What if they instead had tweeted fake messages?鈥� Blake Hounshell, the editor-in-chief of POLITICO Magazine, wrote on Twitter.
He added: 鈥淪eriously, what if this person had tweeted about a fictional nuclear strike on North Korea?鈥�
Many praised the temporary shutdown of Trump鈥檚 account, with users saying the unnamed employee responsible 鈥渄eserves a medal鈥� and that 鈥渘ot all heroes wear capes.鈥�
鈥淭rump鈥檚 Twitter deactivated for 11 min, and I suddenly thought I鈥檇 jumped back into the real timeline where things aren鈥檛 so damned absurd,鈥� tweeted Star Trek actor turned social media personality George Takei.
But the temporary disappearance of the account 鈥� and the glee this prompted among the president鈥檚 detractors 鈥� drew fire from others.
鈥淟iberals were celebrating for the 15 minutes that Trump鈥檚 Twitter disappeared, proving once again they love censorship and hate free speech,鈥� one popular tweet read.
Trump鈥檚 official White House account, @POTUS, which has 20.9 million followers, was apparently not affected by the outage.
After the account was restored Trump did not tweet about the vanishing act, but made several posts on other topics.
Trump鈥檚 official White House account, @POTUS, which has 20.9 million followers, was apparently not affected.
Trump did not tweet about his account鈥檚 vanishing act, but after it was restored made a post about his party鈥檚 tax plan.