Twitter Accused of Anti-Semitism, Bans Pro-Jewish Account
As Twitter remains focused on combating what it considers hate speech and other actions that violate the platform’s terms of use, several accounts have stepped forward with claims that they are being singled out for retributive action by the social media giant.
One such organization is Canary Mission, which bills itself as a pro-Israel coalition working to oppose anti-semitism.
According to the Washington Free Beacon, the group’s account was suspended last week, kicking off a series of moves that included multiple additional suspensions in recent days, each with a subsequent reinstatement by Twitter.
As for Canary Mission’s side of the public feud, it has cast this recent episode as evidence of Twitter’s “Jewish problem,” accusing the platform of unfairly targeting pro-Israel groups while allowing anti-semitic, white supremacist and terrorist accounts to continue sharing their messages.
A statement on behalf of the organization claims the account was initially blocked “without reason” on Feb. 24. That move came with a warning from Twitter that Canary Mission had engaged in “hateful conduct.”
Twitter apparently reconsidered its own action, according to a statement one spokesperson gave to the Free Beacon.
Canary Mission’s “account was temporarily locked in error and has since been restored,” the source said, though an account administrator has since confirmed there remained critical limitations to its functionality.
Those limitations, the source claimed, were directly related to a specific tweet deemed offensive.
“It is still viewable but Twitter has prevented Canary Mission from accessing its account — unless it deletes a tweet that Twitter claims has violated its rules,” the spokesperson said. “Could this be the same tweet that caused the initial suspension?”
That offending tweet is, in fact, an effort to expose a college student’s anti-semitic online comments, according to the group.
Assuming this is the tweet at the root of the group’s current accessibility issues, the source went on to say that would make Twitter’s actions “even more disturbing” and “perhaps bizarre.”
Its ongoing appeal, filed Sunday, is an effort by Canary Mission to stand up to what it alleges is a pattern of unacceptable behavior by Twitter.
“It suspended, then locked a respected anti-Semitism watchdog, but at the same time it continues to allow white supremacist David Duke to tweet freely, terrorist organization Hamas to push violent propaganda, and radical preacher Yusuf al-Qaradawi to promote videos that call for the killing of Jews,” the group said.
With Twitter’s repeated excuses “wearing thin,” the group complained that it has yet to receive a response to its latest appeal, “and right now, we remain locked out of our Twitter account.”
As of Tuesday, the account appears to have been restored and a tweet referencing the student at the center of the controversy was pinned to the top of its feed.
Along with expressing gratitude for Canary Mission’s supporters, the post included a self-referential plug as the group’s “first tweet in a few days.”
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