This week will go down as one of the most difficult weeks on social media for advocates of freedom of speech in the history of the internet.
The world jumped on Facebook this weekend and discovered that some of their favorite conservative voices were nowhere to be found. Conservative firebrand, Laura Loomer had been banned. In addition to Loomer, the wildly popular conservative with almost 1 million followers on Twitter, Paul Joseph Watson, was also banned. Alex Jones of Infowars was banned, and to make things fair, the left-wing, openly anti-Semitic, hate-preacher Louis Farrakhan was also banned.
Last night, it was Twitter’s turn when they suspended Michael Horowitz, founder of the Freedom Center. After Donald Trump Jr. called out the CEO of Twitter for shutting down a prominent Jewish voice, Twitter reinstated his account. Horowitz responded to Donald Trump Jr.’s tweet, saying: I’ve been unsuspended after protest. But yes the greatest threat we face is the biggest blacklist in the history of our country against supporters of America and its great leader Donald Trump.
I've been unsuspended after protest. But yes the greatest threat we face is the biggest blacklist in the history of our country against supporters of America and its great leader Donald Trump. https://t.co/Tcud0bRzT2
— David Horowitz (@horowitz39) May 8, 2019
Fans of the popular Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez parody account woke up today to discover that it was shut down. The account was started in 2018 and had 85,000 followers when it was terminated.
Raheem Kassam said it best when he warned President Trump that his followers are not being “mass culled ahead of the election, calling it election meddling:
So @twitter has today suspended @AOCPress, which had “parody” in both its name AND its bio. Yet they claim to allow parody in the suspension email itself. Hey @realdonaldtrump your followers are now being mass culled ahead of the election. #meddling
https://twitter.com/RaheemKassam/status/1125569298947366914
Meanwhile, an account that mocks First Lady Melania Trump and was started in 2017, and has 76K followers is still up and running. The person or persons who tweet from the account are still very active
Most of the tweets center around Melania either being ignorant or drunk, of which she is neither.
There are also at least 10 President Trump parody accounts that are intended to mock his leadership and intelligence, in addition to other crude tweets.
Video generator, Carpe Donktum asked CEO Jack Dorsey why he shut down @OfficeOfMike, an account for Michael J. Morrison, a Jewish writer and consultant for JewishVoice.com
What's up @jack? pic.twitter.com/s8BLv51a0g
— Feelin cute. May revolt l8r. IDK (@Sheep2Wolves) May 7, 2019
So what’s going on here? Why are parody accounts that mock Democrats being shut down, while multiple accounts that regularly mock and attack our lovely first lady and president are still up and running? We’d love to hear what you think in the comment section below.