(TheLibertyRvoulution)- Over the weekend, Twitter joined some other big tech companies in permanently suspending accounts in President Donald Trump’s name.
The social media company, like others such as Facebook, cited the president’s alleged violations of their Glorification of Violence policy. That policy states:
“You may not threaten violence against an individual or a group of people. We also prohibit the glorification of violence.”
In the wake of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol building last week, Twitter first suspended Trump’s account temporarily and then banned him permanently after he tweeted what the company considered to be a glorification of violence. After doing so, many other conservative Twitter users found that their accounts had been banned as well.
It would be understandable if Twitter was consistent in its approach to warning, suspending and then banning people from their platform for violating their rules. But the fact of the matter is that they are not in the least bit. There are plenty well-known politicians who have advocated for violence on Twitter, or supported people who have, and they still are able to maintain accounts.
One example is Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei. He consistently advocates violence on his Twitter account. In early November, following the beheading of a French teacher who showed a political cartoon that depicted Mohammad as well as mass stabbings at a church in Nice, Khamenei focused his criticisms on the victims.
He tweeted:
“Following the insults to the #Prophet, the Islamic nation is filled with rage & objections. From the east to the west of the Islamic world, many Muslim officials & people have defended the Islamic identity & Prophet’s noble personage, which shows the Muslim communities’ vitality.
“Today, the main enemies of Island are the Arrogant Powers & Zionism. The last manifestation of their enmity was the Paris incident. It is not just about one caricaturist committing a wrongdoing. Arrogant Powers & Zionism support this. That’s why they speak in defense of such acts.”
Iran’s supreme ruler has promised to exact “revenge” on America and called for Israel to “perish” on numerous occasions.
People could argue that Vice President-elect Kamala Harris advocated violence in a similar way that Trump did. Back in June, she tweeted support for the Minnesota Freedom Fund. She tweeted:
“If you’re able to, chip in now to the @MNFreedomFund to help post bail for those protesting on the ground in Minnesota.”
Of course, a lot of those people who were arrested were rioting in Minneapolis following the death of George Floyd. The riots in total caused more than $500 million of damage to the city and resulted in the death of two people.
Harris was advocating for support for people who committed violent crimes. In a way, then, she was saying the violence was OK, and that more people should seek to do the same thing, as long as they were protesting police brutality.
It’s inconsistencies and hypocrisy like this that has found Twitter at the center of allegations of unfair censoring of conservative voices. And it’s situations like this that are sure to draw the ire of President Trump in his final days in office.
