Twitter shares drop 7% after Trump account suspension

Shares of Twitter Inc slumped 7% on Monday, on course to knock off about $2.5 billion from the market value of the social media company after it permanently suspended the account of U.S. President Donald Trump.

The slide came as some Republicans hit out over the weekend at the platform for gagging one of its most watched participants, with traders also pointing to signs that the affair was further fuelling calls for greater regulation of Big Tech.

Trump’s account had more than 88 million followers and had been retweeted billions of times.

Trump has a very high and loyal following and a lot of those eyeballs will go away if Trump is permanently restricted from posting, said Andrea Cicione, head of strategy at brokerage TS Lombard.

Other social media platforms, including Facebook Inc, have been quick to issue similar bans on the outgoing president last week after the violence at Capitol Hill.

But the fall in Twitter’s shares in premarket trading was much heavier than for any of its peers.