13 Aug 2020

Wellington company EightyOne 'banned from Twitter' for criticising US President Donald Trump

10:33 am on 13 August 2020

A Wellington company says it has been banned from Twitter for a campaign criticising US President Donald Trump.

US President Donald Trump speaks to the press in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on August 10, 2020.

US President Donald Trump. Photo: AFP

Advertising and marketing business EightyOne said its "Trumbers" campaign poked fun at Trump and his use of facts and figures - in a deadpan Kiwi way.

EightyOne's executive creative director Chris Bleackley said its account was back online after being taken down twice in the last couple of weeks.

To date, more than 600,000 people have viewed "Trumbers" on Twitter and it has been shared with the Republican Party and Trump.

As a result of the campaign, Bleackley said EightyOne staff began receiving hate mail from Trump and Republican Party supporters.

Bleackley said it had been presenting honest numbers about Trump's presidency.

"Our tweets aren't inflammatory. We're expressing honestly held beliefs in a humorous way and presenting actual facts. We understand that Donald Trump and the Republican Party might not fund them funny, but getting us banned from Twitter seems a little over the top," he said.

"Like it for not, Trump is the most talked about person in the world right now. We simply wanted to create a campaign and a typeface for anyone to have their say and exercise their first amendment rights."

EightyOne also created a Trump-inspired typeface called TrumpFace, which was available to the public for free.

Each letter of TrumpFace was designed to highlight a different aspect of Trump's tenure as commander in chief.

Twitter has been contacted for comment.