Share
News

Twitter Suspends Anti-Semite Farrakhan 'in Error', Allows Him Back Hours Later

Share

The Twitter account of Louis Farrakhan was suspended Saturday, but the Nation of Islam leader was back on the social media giant in just a few hours as Twitter announced the action had been a mistake.

On Saturday morning, anyone looking for the latest tweets from Farrakhan would have found instead a message that the account was suspended, and an admonition from Twitter that it suspends accounts that violate its rules.

A few hours later, the account was back

Trending:
KJP Panics, Hangs Up in Middle of Interview When Reporter Shows He Isn't a Democratic Party Propagandist

A Twitter representative said sending the suspension was an error, adding that “the account was caught by our spam filter in error and has been reinstated,” according to the Washington Examiner.

The episode, naturally, made Twitter users take notice.

Farrakhan’s Twitter account had been in the news earlier last week when Twitter announced that its new rules barring tweets that dehumanize religious groups would include a 2018 Farrakhan tweet that likened Jews to termites.

Farrakhan has long been criticized for anti-Semitic and homophobic comments. Twitter took away Farrakhan’s “verified” status for a tweet that talked about “the Satanic Jew and the Synagogue of Satan.”

Related:
Town Notices 'Unauthorized' Figure Was Included in Taxpayer-Funded Mural
Should Twitter ban Louis Farrakhan?

“It’s against our rules to dehumanize others based on religion,” a Twitter representative said, according to CNN. “That tweet is now unavailable.”

The 2018 tweet had long been a bone of contention, with Farrakhan’s critics saying it was blatant anti-Semitism, while Twitter insisted the comment did not violate its rules.

In a blog post Tuesday, Twitter said it was acting to enrich the rule about dehumanizing people based on religion after an extensive time of researching the issue.

“[A]fter months of conversations and feedback from the public, external experts and our own teams, we’re expanding our rules against hateful conduct to include language that dehumanizes others on the basis of religion,” the blog post said.

Twitter noted it will be lenient with offenders.

“If reported, Tweets that break this rule sent before today will need to be deleted, but will not directly result in any account suspensions because they were Tweeted before the rule was set,” the blog post said.

Truth and Accuracy

Submit a Correction →



We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.

Tags:
, , ,
Share
Jack Davis is a freelance writer who joined The Western Journal in July 2015 and chronicled the campaign that saw President Donald Trump elected. Since then, he has written extensively for The Western Journal on the Trump administration as well as foreign policy and military issues.
Jack Davis is a freelance writer who joined The Western Journal in July 2015 and chronicled the campaign that saw President Donald Trump elected. Since then, he has written extensively for The Western Journal on the Trump administration as well as foreign policy and military issues.
Jack can be reached at jackwritings1@gmail.com.
Location
New York City
Languages Spoken
English
Topics of Expertise
Politics, Foreign Policy, Military & Defense Issues




Conversation