Things have been a little quiet from Donald Trump since his presidency came to an end. The cessation of online rants was helped by Twitter slapping him with a permanent ban over concerns that his tweets were an incitement to violence.

Having attempted to launch his own social media platform as a replacement, Trump is now trying a new tactic. The former president has asked a federal judge in Florida to get Twitter to restore his @RealDonaldTrump account, claiming that he has been censored.

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After being removed from all social media following the January 6 insurrection -- his beloved Twitter, along with Facebook, YouTube and Instagram -- it was determined that the best way to get Donald Trump back online would be a blog. A place for him to type thoughts and feelings, a stream of consciousness, much as his tweets were. If you missed his typos and random capital letters then it could be the place for you. 

However, there currently aren’t a lot of entries on his new blog and he isn’t a riveting writer. Worse still, the Washington Post speculates that interest in him is simply wavering. 

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When Donald Trump was removed from social media networks like Facebook and Twitter, the only real surprise was that it hadn't happened sooner. With the former president apparently planning to create his own social platforms, the story is far from over, and he sems likely to maintain an online presence.

But there is also the question about what to do with Trump's previous online content. One thing is certain – his tweets will not be appearing in the National Archives after Twitter denied NARA permission to resurrect deleted content from the suspended account.

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Twitter has confirmed that, even if he is re-elected as US president in 2024, Donald Trump will not be allowed to use the platform ever again.

The former president was unceremoniously kicked off Twitter towards the end of his leadership after concerns that his tweets were an incitement to violence. The company hit Trump with permanent suspension back in January, and has now made it clear that permanent really does mean permanent.

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Right now, we are still waiting for the winner of the 2020 US presidential election to be determined, with vote counting still continuing in several states. But the fact that counting is not yet complete has not stopped Trump declaring victory.

The current president has also used his favorite medium, tweeting, to make numerous false claims about the election. Twitter responded accordingly, attaching warnings to tweets in which Trump claimed the Democrats were trying to "STEAL the Election", made baseless accusations about "surprise ballot dumps" causing him to lose his lead in some states, as well as claiming victory in Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, and Michigan.

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In a brief statement issued late last night, Microsoft revealed that it was out of the running to buy TikTok’s US operations.

US President Donald Trump claims that TikTok (and other Chinese apps) pose a threat to national security and his administration has set a September 15 deadline for ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese owner, to either sell US operations or shut them down.

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In just four months, the United States will head into one of the most important Presidential election cycles of its history. Ensuring that eligible citizens are able to participate in the voting process will be critical.

Understandably, as COVID-19 continues to grip the nation and the world around us, American citizens are wary about turning out to vote in person, for fear of being in a crowd or lengthy line. Some startling facts drive home this point when you look at the state of Pennsylvania, for example. This year 1.8 million people have requested absentee votes, up from just 107,000 in 2016. This is further supported by a recent report commissioned by Okta, which found that 67 percent of Americans support mail-in voting to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

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The Trump administration has been dealt a double blow on social media after Twitter flagged a tweet from the president as "manipulated media" and Facebook remove election ads that featured a Nazi symbol and called for Antifa to be declared a terrorist organization.

On Twitter, Trump retweeted a video labelled as depicting a "racist baby" and made to look like a CNN news clip. In the case of Facebook, an ad that violated the company's policies against organized hate was taken down.

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Donald Trump's war with Twitter looks likely to heat up after the social media site hid one of the president's tweets for "glorifying violence".

Tweeting about people in people in Minneapolis protesting about the killing of George Floyd by a police officer, Trump referred to the protestors as "thugs". He then went on to say "any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts" -- and it was this phrase which fell foul of Twitter rules.

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There have long been complaints from the right that online platforms censor conservative opinions because of a liberal bias. Now after being fact-checked by Twitter, Donald Trump has threatened to close down social media platforms.

In the last 24 hours, Twitter added a "Get the facts" link to a false claim made in a tweet by the president about mail-in votes. Clearly incensed, Trump tweeted that "we will strongly regulate, or close them down".

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Donald Trump has lashed out at Twitter, accusing the site of not only interfering in the 2020 presidential elections, but also of standing in the way of free speech.

The accusations came after the site added a fact-checking link to a tweet Trump posted suggesting that mail-in ballots in California would be "substantially fraudulent". Twitter added a "Get the facts about mail-in ballots" to a pair of his tweets, causing the president to react angrily. The site, did not, however, censor or delete the tweets.

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Big technology companies have been recently coming under increased scrutiny from federal regulators. Several tech companies are reportedly under investigation, but this column is only about Amazon, which seems to be in regulatory crosshairs in part because President Trump doesn’t like Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, who also owns one of Trump’s least-favorite newspapers, the Washington Post. Ironically, Trump’s goal of breaking-up Amazon would only make Jeff Bezos at least $35 billion richer.

It’s simple: Amazon is worth a lot more in pieces than it is as a single company.

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Just last month, Twitter announced new rules as it tries to stem the flow of "synthetic and manipulated media" on the platform. The company only started using the "manipulated media" label on March 5, and it was White House social media director Dan Scavino who earned the questionable honor of being the first recipient.

Over the weekend, he shared a video clip of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden that was edited in such a way as to make it seem as though Biden was endorsing Trump. But the clip had been carefully edited to change the meaning of what was actually said.

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If you have a Huawei phone launched after May 16 last year, you're going to have to live without Google app such as Gmail, YouTube and Google Maps -- even the Play Store.

Known collectively as Google Mobile Services, Huawei is banned from gaining a license from Google to use its software. In a post on its support website, Google has revealed more about what is going on, and advises people against bypassing the ban by sideloading apps.

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The upcoming US presidential election is wrought with emotions. That makes it the perfect ruse for email scams targeting citizens, politicians, and government organizations. While election phishing is the top concern, there are a host of other scams that are making the rounds.

Your favorite politician -- or the one you’re most likely to vote for -- needs money to successfully run their campaign. Hackers are relying on our devotion not only to politicians but to our affiliated political party to lure us into a trap.

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