The Patriot Post® · In Brief: Gingrich Slams Twitter

We’ve often railed at the egregious censorship of social media outlets Facebook and Twitter. The latter is the subject of an open letter from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, whose account was recently locked. Gingrich writes:

Twitter locked me out over a tweet that criticized the Biden administration’s approach to the Southern Border — and raised concern over immigrants crossing the border illegally who may be infected with COVID-19.

I was reacting to a recent story that federal officials have no way of testing people who are picked up by US Customs and Border Patrol — or forcing them to quarantine.

I am not the only one concerned about this. …

Now, my tweet said:

“If there is a covid surge in Texas the fault will not be Governor [Greg] Abbott’s common sense reforms. The greatest threat of a covid surge comes from Biden’s untested illegal immigrants pouring across the border. We have no way of knowing how many of them are bringing covid with them.”

Twitter promptly sent a note explaining that my account was locked for, “[v]iolating our rules against hateful conduct,” saying: “You may not promote violence against, threaten, or harass other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease.”

He asked several questions of Twitter’s censors regarding the fact of the pandemic and the fact of testing being a key tool and the fact that illegals are not being tested. If this is supposed to be a factual debate, let’s have answers. He continued:

This entire experience has made it even more clear to me that Twitter is only interested in censoring conservatives.

As my account remains locked, Louis Farrakhan is free to tweet that the COVID-19 vaccine is dangerous or illegitimate, saying “now God is going to turn your vaccine into death in a hurry.”

I am censored, but the Chinese Communist Dictatorship — which bans Twitter in its own country — is able to spread propaganda and lies about the virus and its origins.

Twitter and all the major social media platforms have become important places for Americans to communicate. They are currently protected by law as public forums. For public forums to serve the public good, they must be open and unbiased.

I hope Twitter will unlock my account, stop its aggressive and biased censorship, and return to the spirit and ideals of free speech which allowed it to prosper in the first place.