For 11 happy minutes Twitter users celebrated a Trump-free experience, heaping praise on the rogue staffer who shut down the US president

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Like the Christmas truce in the first world war trenches, for 11 serene minutes it seemed like peace and harmony had broken out on earth with the sudden suspension of Donald Trump’s Twitter account.

It soon emerged that the outage was not because the tech company had taken action against the US president for occasionally threatening nuclear war, nor that Trump had accidentally deleted his account; instead, it seems a disgruntled Twitter employee had pulled the stunt on their last day at work.

Twitter Government (@TwitterGov) 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

Twitter was flooded with people wanting to congratulate the employee responsible.

Kumail Nanjiani (@kumailn) Not all heroes wear capes. https://t.co/8hchNECGaA

ALT-Immigration 🛂 (@ALT_uscis) Kudos to the @twitter customer support employee who deactivated Trump’s twitter account on his last work day.

You sir are my hero.

Chris Ward (@yorker129_7) Whoever disabled Donald Trump's Twitter account shouldn't be sacked. They should be promoted.

Darren Griffiths (@dhwg3010) Twitter: Rogue employee deactivated Trump’s Twitter account on their last day.



The World:#r4today pic.twitter.com/DFr7vGChLI

There were jokes about how the temptation had obviously proved too much for the employee.

Jamie Ross (@JamieRoss7) When it's your last day of work at Twitter. pic.twitter.com/5xkzznYMdU

And some imagined the scene as the saboteur sassily walked out of the office after pressing the big red “Delete Trump” button.

Jason Duval (@bebe_chien) The twitter employee leaving work today pic.twitter.com/SRuZNSXKxV

Alan White (@aljwhite) leaving your job at twitter after deleting trump's account like pic.twitter.com/VjPopz8JMO

Other people wondered if maybe, just maybe, somebody else might have had a hand in it.

Alex Marr (@Alexmarr98) New Twitter employee mistakenly deactivates Donald Trump's Twitter account pic.twitter.com/gZ50xWC2bo

If it wasn’t Hillary, could it have been another prominent Democrat, just a couple of days after his wife had warned not to tweet your every thought?

Jake Page (@JakePage17) A "rogue" employee deleted Donald Trump's Twitter. I think we all know who that was... pic.twitter.com/SpI32AqJKZ

For some, it was an inspirational moment.

Mrigank Tyagi (@TheMrigankTyagi) I’m saving this picture of Trump's Twitter account as a reminder that anything can happen with anyone no matter how big you are!! pic.twitter.com/09fpkODtM8

And you might think the job prospects for someone pulling a stunt like this on their last day would be diminished, but there were plenty of social media users who took the opposite view.

Khadeja hussein (@k_ramali) "I was the person that deleted trump for 6 minutes"

"you're hired" https://t.co/je3T9oqcke

Other speculated it could make Twitter a more attractive place to work.

Amber (@onion_amber) I wonder how many people are applying to customer service positions at twitter so they can delete Trumps acct. where do I submit my resume https://t.co/WvRWd0crwV

For some, it was confirmation of what they’d been thinking all along: that the only way to adequately explain the craziness of the past two years is some kind of intra-dimension spat between time-travellers.

Nfinit (@Nfinit) 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

Others claimed they would never forget where they were the moment that Trump’s Twitter account was silenced.

Rob Woodyard (@robwoodyard1) Remember exactly where I was when a) I heard on the radio Elvis died, and b) when Trump's Twitter disappeared.

Manic Deep Russian (@Somniferously) I'll never forget where I was. I was in bread aisle. Suddenly the bread looked fresher, softer—in its own way, the bread looked hopeful.

People said they would happily watch a dramatisation of the events behind “The Vanishing”.

But there’s always someone who focuses on the potential downside to an internet sensation.

Matthew Taylor (@Matthew_Taylor) Everyone’s saying how good it was when Donald Trump’s Twitter was deleted. I was terrified he might be doing work and passing legislation.

Amid alt-right rumours that the far-left activists of Antifa are planning to start a new US civil war on 4 November, at least one person took the opportunity to suggest the suspension was the signal to start the uprising.

Why the far right believes a US civil war will start on Saturday Read more

Baste God (@Spaced_God) i can't believe the antifa supersoldiers deleted trump's twitter account as a sign to begin the antifa uprising

Even if it had been triggered at the wrong moment.

Lana Del Raytheon (@LanaDelRaytheon) writing up a disciplinary letter to the antifa super soldier who disabled donald trump's twitter account 2 days before the 11/4 attacks

The deletion of Trump’s account also gave people the chance to relive one of the internet’s all-time favourite last day pranks.



Ally@GoodFairyClean (@GoodFairyClean) Closing down Donald Trump's twitter account...It's right up there with the Forth Road Bridge employee's last day pic.twitter.com/mX7DF7Dnh3

And you sense that once the mysterious ex-employee is identified, there could be a very happy ending for them.

Craig Armsworth (@clutchcraig) Whoever deleted Donald Trump’s Twitter should never need to buy a drink in any bar anywhere!!!

Josh Wicks (@JoshKWicks) We should collectively fundraise something massive for the guy that deleted Donald Trump's Twitter

• This article was amended on 10 September 2018 to remove a tweet by @wokeluisa because the account was suspended by Twitter, and linked to Russian botnets.