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Twitter's Brief Suspension of Pro-Life Movie 'Unplanned' Seriously Backfires

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Just out of curiosity, when was the last time you saw a social media provider “accidentally” suspend a left-leaning account that hasn’t violated its terms of service? I’d genuinely like to know.

It seems there are scads of unwarranted suspensions when it comes to accounts associated with conservatives who haven’t overstepped their bounds, most of which are blamed on some sort of cosmic accident — a weird, ineffable error within the Great Algorithm that caused it all to happen.

The latest victim of that darned algorithm is the movie “Unplanned.” The pro-life film centers around the story of a former Planned Parenthood clinic director who becomes disillusioned with the organization after witnessing an abortion.

The film has reportedly been hit with a media blackout by networks who don’t want to sell it commercial airtime. “Unplanned” also got an “R” rating from the Motion Picture Association of America, a move conservatives blasted as politically motivated.

Neither of those moves sounds terribly ethical, though private entities certainly have the right to do business with whom they choose or rate movies how they see fit.

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Less defensible, at least coming from the one-time “free speech wing of the free speech party,” is Twitter’s move to briefly suspend the movie’s account from Twitter on Saturday.

But of course, it was just a mistake — a mistake that seriously backfired, it must be noted.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the account was quickly restored after Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was tagged along with screenshots of the account suspension notice.

The first tweet after the account’s restoration thanked supporters for lobbying the social media giant to end the suspension.

So, here’s the explanation: Twitter says it has software that takes down accounts linked to other accounts that engage in TOS-breaking behavior.

One of the accounts linked to “Unplanned” apparently violated the rules somehow — no definitive explanation was given as to why that account was suspended but a statement given to Breitbart seemed to suggest “ban evasion” — so the account for “Unplanned” was taken down, too.

Do you think Twitter has a bias against conservatives?

When Twitter revisited the suspension shortly thereafter, it decided the movie’s account shouldn’t be affected by the other account’s suspension and thus restored access for “Unplanned.”

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“It is a sad time we live in when corporations can remove individuals’ freedom of speech at will. When did we empower these corporations to have such authority?” Cary Solomon, who co-wrote and co-directed “Unplanned,” told The Hollywood Reporter. “More importantly, why do we empower them to do so?”

“It’s a sad state of affairs when the right to free speech gets shut down with the flick of a switch. The Twitter account for our film, ‘Unplanned,’ was suspended this morning — without explanation,” Chuck Konzelman, the other co-director and co-writer, added.

“Whether this was an executive decision by Twitter, or a reaction by Twitter to complaints from those opposed to the pro-life viewpoint, either reason is unacceptable. Fortunately, the uproar in our defense was loud and fast in coming: Our account has since been reinstated. Thanks to all who have rallied to our defense,” Konzelman said.

I suppose one could easily go through the reasons conservatives might distrust Twitter’s explanation of this suspension given how often these sorts of things seem to happen to conservative accounts, but never mind. It turns out the suspension may have been felicitous:

The film’s Twitter account apparently had just over 8,000 followers when it was suspended. As of Sunday morning, it had more than 83,000 followers.

And not only does the account have tens of thousands of new followers, but “Unplanned” is performing above expectations at the box office.

The movie “earned $2.72 million on Friday, setting the stage for a likely $7.25 million debut weekend,” Forbes reported. Variety also said “Unplanned” was on track to earn about $7 million over the weekend.

If there is a concerted effort to deflect attention away from the film, as Solomon and Konzelman seem to claim, it doesn’t appear to have worked.

If this were an uneventful rollout with no controversies attached, paradoxically, we wouldn’t have seen any attention given to “Unplanned.”

It would be another film with a conservative message from a Christian production company. If it hadn’t gotten an “R” rating, if networks hadn’t allegedly blocked the film’s producers from buying airtime and if the Twitter account hadn’t been suspended, there wouldn’t be a single reason to cover it.

Now, even media outlets like The Hollywood Reporter and Variety have written stories on the controversy. And, for many people, this could be an introduction to just how heavy-handed Twitter’s policies can be against conservatives.

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C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he's written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014.
C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he's written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014. Aside from politics, he enjoys spending time with his wife, literature (especially British comic novels and modern Japanese lit), indie rock, coffee, Formula One and football (of both American and world varieties).
Birthplace
Morristown, New Jersey
Education
Catholic University of America
Languages Spoken
English, Spanish
Topics of Expertise
American Politics, World Politics, Culture




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