Caroline notes that:
The Babylon Bee, a Christian satire site, was locked out of Twitter Sunday for a satirical post that named transgender Cabinet member Rachel Levine “Man of the Year.”
Twitter claimed that the article violated its rules against “hateful conduct” when it notified the Bee that its account had been frozen.
“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,” the notice read.
Twitter has reportedly promised to restore the account in 12 hours but only under the condition that the Bee deletes the tweet it has deemed problematic.
Is it Twitter’s policy that its users may not assert (or joke) that transgender individuals are not really of the sex to which they believe they belong? If it is, the company should say so clearly, so that its 200 million owners know where they stand.
Twitter is a private company, and it can make that its rule if it wishes. Hell, if Twitter sees fit, it can make its rules up as it goes along. But it shouldn’t, because doing so is a recipe for caprice and for chaos.
In theory, “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” sounds rather straightforward. In practice, it’s nothing of the sort. At this very moment, there are people on Twitter hoping aloud that Clarence Thomas dies. Day in, day out, those same people write that Thomas is “not black,” and even that he’s a “race traitor.” For some reason, they never seem to get suspended. Presumably, Twitter’s defense is that this is somehow “different.” If so, then Twitter should own that difference and help us all understand where its lines have been drawn.