A growing number of Twitter accounts have been suspended for referring to U.S. Assistant Secretary of Health Rachel Levine, who identifies as a transgender woman, as a man.
Since Levine was named one of USA Today’s “Women of the Year” on Wednesday, multiple Twitter accounts addressing Levine as a man have either been suspended or flagged for offensive content.
SUSPENDED TWITTER ACCOUNTS
Charlie Kirk
The founder of conservative nonprofit organization Turning Point USA had his Twitter account suspended on Tuesday after he wrote that Levine “spent 54 years of his life as a man” and “had a wife and family.”
“He ‘transitioned’ to being a woman in 2011, Joe Biden appointed Levine to be a 4-Star Admiral, and now USA Today has named ‘Rachel’ Levine as a ‘Woman of the Year,'” Kirk’s tweet read. “Where are the feminists??”
Twitter said it suspended Kirk’s account because users “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,” according to the Post Millennial.
The account can be restored if Kirk deletes the tweet.
Turning Point USA told the Washington Examiner no other people affiliated with the organization have been suspended.
The Christian Post
The conservative outlet said Twitter temporarily limited its account on Monday for a March 15 tweet referring to Levine as a man. The account’s features, including the ability to like, follow, or retweet content, were then limited but could be restored after 12 hours once the tweet in question was deleted.
The newspaper’s leadership has not said whether it will abide by Twitter’s request to delete the tweet.
The Babylon Bee and its leaders
The CEO of the Babylon Bee, Seth Dillon, revealed on Sunday through his personal Twitter account that he and other people at the satirical website were locked out of its account for “hateful content.” The tweet that got the team locked out linked to an article titled “The Babylon Bee’s Man Of The Year Is Rachel Levine.”
The account would have been unlocked after 12 hours if the tweet were deleted, which Dillon refused to do.
“If the cost of telling the truth is the loss of our Twitter account, then so be it,” Dillon wrote on his personal account.
The website’s editor-in-chief, Kyle Mann, was also locked out of his account after he jokingly wrote that perhaps the Babylon Bee’s Twitter account would be unlocked “if we throw a few thousand Uighurs in a concentration camp,” according to a screenshot Dillon tweeted Tuesday before he was locked out.
FLAGGED TWEETS
Ken Paxton
The Texas attorney general had several of his recent tweets flagged for content deemed offensive to transgender people. He claimed on Thursday that Levine was a man and tweeted his congratulations on Friday to Emma Weyant, the collegiate swimmer who lost to transgender NCAA winner Lia Thomas.
“This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about hateful conduct,” Twitter wrote in a warning filter placed on Paxton’s tweets. “However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible.”
Paxton issued a statement on Friday blasting “Big Tech” and said he is exploring legal action to stop Big Tech’s “one-sided censorship.”
Several Big Tech platforms have been accused of engaging in censorship of conservative voices. YouTube suspended a pro-Trump channel on Tuesday for promoting “election misinformation,” and Facebook, Twitter, and others have locked the accounts of or issued warnings to users whose posts they say violate their policies.
*story by The Washington Examiner
