Many conservatives were taken aback this week when Twitter censored the accounts of journalists reporting on the planned “Trans Day of Vengeance” by activists this weekend. The suspension was what conservative critics describe as the first serious case of censorship of right-leaning voices since billionaire Elon Musk took over the platform last year.
Among the first news organizations to report on the coming “Day of Vengeance” was the Federalist, including its CEO Sean Davis.
The social media company stated that those reporting on the topic were, according to the Federalist, involved with “violent speech” and would “only be reinstated if they submitted to the Orwellian reeducation exercise of manually deleting their tweets” and affirming Twitter’s rules.
The Federalist CEO wasn’t the only one who saw their account restricted by the social media giant. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) said that her account was “temporarily suspended for warning about Antifa’s Trans Day of Vengeance in front of the Supreme Court.”
Yesterday, my official Twitter account was termporarily suspended for warning about Antifa's Trans Day of Vengeance in front of the Supreme Court.
This planned event is being whitewashed by global brands and the left. Meanwhile, there’s still no pic.twitter.com/SKuqcgeTL7…
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) March 29, 2023
The New York Post saw significant restrictions due to reporting on the story, including being locked out of its Twitter account Thursday.
The reaction of Twitter is notable for several different reasons. The Post was the main news outlet to report on the laptop belonging to Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden. While many media outlets refused to cover the story, the Post faced a severe backlash.
The newspaper’s social media accounts were suspended, including on Twitter. This took place right before the crucial 2020 elections. Since then, Musk described the suspension as “obviously incredibly inappropriate.”
The wave of suspensions about the planned Trans Day of Vengeance may be a sign that Twitter has not changed considerably during Musk’s tenure, or is changing back to its former censorship. Many conservatives who cheered Musk’s purchase of the company see this example as a major test of the future of Twitter and free expression on the internet.
