The founder and editor of the right-wing Gateway Pundit website has been permanently banned from Twitter, leaving the liberal left "thrilled" and conservatives wondering who will be silenced next.
The @gatewaypundit Twitter handle belonging to Jim Hoft with more than 375,000 followers was abruptly banned on Saturday night. “The account was permanently suspended for repeated violations of our civic integrity policy,” a Twitter spokesperson confirmed in a brief statement.
I don't agree with Twitter banning people for sharing posts with people that chose to follow us...
— SIGMA ALDO (@HindlesKitchen) February 7, 2021
It's not like we're making people who don't follow us read our posts...
Twitter's "community guidelines" are a euphemism for censorship
Twitter did not clarify what kind of violation has become the last straw, as the account seemed not very active recently, while the conservative publication itself has long faced criticism from the left for pushing “lies” and “conspiracies.”
Twitter's recently updated civic integrity policy introduces a system of strikes and increasingly severe punishments for pushing “disputed claims that could undermine faith in the process itself, such as unverified information about election rigging, ballot tampering, vote tallying, or certification of election results.”
That's a full blown banning. Jim Hoft and his team have been among the few in conservative who still have the guts to call out voter fraud.
— JD Rucker (@JDRucker) February 7, 2021
One by one the remaining dissenters will be removed.
“Oh shit they got my boss,” tweeted journalist and the Pundit contributor Cassandra Fairbanks. In response to 'You're next!' threats she quipped that from now on she will be careful not to wrongthing and will only tweet the opposite of what she means.
Liberals are great. Biden won fairly. They totally don’t want us all dead.
— Cassandra Fairbanks (@CassandraRules) February 6, 2021
Liberals have celebrated the ban, many openly delighted while others wondered what took Twitter so long.
Thrilled to see the Gateway Pundit has been suspended.
— 💭 (@samthielman) February 7, 2021
Ha Ha! Gateway Pundit suspended. Maybe @gatewaypundit should stop spreading lies and disinformation. pic.twitter.com/bzyFmLClEX
— Gregg Housh (@GreggHoush) February 7, 2021
Some sought to justify the move, not as the latest act of “censorship” of conservative voices, but rather a sincere desire by a private corporation to “limit the spread of dangerous disinformation”.
All of this deleting of accounts by Twitter is troubling, but I understand a private company believing they have an ethical responsibility to try to prevent the spread to millions of the sort of lies that caused the Jan 6 insurrection. @gatewaypundit @CassandraRules
— Ross Kaminsky (@Rossputin) February 7, 2021
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