Twitter has refused to revoke its decision to lock The Babylon Bee’s account.
On Sunday, Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon revealed that the Christian satire site had been locked out of its Twitter account for “hateful conduct.” On Wednesday evening, Dillon noted that Twitter denied his company’s appeal.
According to Dillon, the company wrote: “Our support team has determined that a violation did take place, and therefore we will not overturn our decision.”
Update: Twitter has denied The Babylon Bee's appeal. They wrote, "Our support team has determined that a violation did take place, and therefore we will not overturn our decision."
— Seth Dillon (@SethDillon) March 24, 2022
Twitter’s initial decision occurred in reaction to The Babylon Bee’s piece from last week, which jokingly named Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary Rachel Levine as “Man of the Year.” Levine — a transgender person who claims female identity — formerly served as Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Health and was appointed by President Joe Biden to serve in the federal government. Recently, Levine was named one of USA Today’s “Women of the Year.”
Twitter flagged the Bee’s post poking fun at USA Today for violating its rules against “hateful conduct.” The rule states, “You may not promote violence against, threaten, or harass other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease.”
Dillon wrote that the account could be restored 12 hours after the company deleted the tweet linking to the Levine article. Dillon, however, refused to acquiesce. “We’re not deleting anything. Truth is not hate speech,” he wrote. “If the cost of telling the truth is the loss of our Twitter account, then so be it.”
Twitter took similar action against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, who pointed out on Twitter that “Rachel Levine is a man.” He was subsequently flagged for “hateful conduct” by the social media giant.
Paxton later released a statement doubling down on his original message.
“Yesterday I stated an irrefutable scientific fact: Rachel Levine is a man,” Paxton wrote. “I pointed this out after USA Today named him a ‘Woman’ of the Year. But Levine is not a woman. He has one X and one Y chromosome and other male-sex characteristics. I just follow the science.”
“For simply saying this matter-of-factly, Twitter blocked it as ‘hateful.’ Users can now only access my statement through a trigger-warning filter. And even then, users can neither like it nor comment on it,” he continued. “At the same time, hundreds of other verified accounts saying the exact same thing remain untouched and unfiltered.”
The suspensions over criticism of Levine come after conservative commentator Allie Beth Stuckey was suspended last August for a tweet that criticized transgender Olympic weightlifter Laurel Hubbard competing against females: “Hubbard failing at the event doesn’t make his inclusion fair. He’s still a man, and men shouldn’t compete against women in weightlifting.”
Twitter flagged the post for “hateful conduct” and told Stuckey, “You may not promote violence against, threaten, or harass other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease.”
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Source: Dailywire
