I wrote this past weekend about Daniel Merritt, the conservative combat vet, entrepreneur, patriot, dad (of four), husband, and WFB pal now running for Congress in Georgia’s first congressional district.
After the post was published, he reached out to say that his Twitter account — @MerrittforGA – had been shut down. At first it had been suspended for the infraction of . . . unknown. He reached out to the Twitter bureaucrats: What gives? Came the nebulous response:
Hello,
We received your appeal regarding your account. Please reply to this message and confirm that you have access to this email address. Once we receive your confirmation, we’ll review the information you provided and will respond as soon as possible.
We typically suspend accounts for violations of the Twitter Rules (https://twitter.com/rules) or Terms of Service (https://twitter.com/tos). Additionally, repeat violations may result in permanent account suspension.
Thanks,
Twitter Support
A few hours later, he was sent a nameless/faceless/details-less communication by Twitter:
Hello,
Your account has been suspended and will not be restored because it was found to be violating the Twitter Terms of Service, specifically the Twitter Rules against managing multiple Twitter accounts for abusive purposes.
You can learn more about our rules around multiple accounts and against abusive behavior here: https://twitter.com/rules.
Please note that creating new account(s) to evade this suspension is also against the Twitter Rules and will result in additional account suspension(s).
Thanks,
“Thanks, Twitter.” That’s rich.
So Merritt’s increasingly popular account is now permanently kiboshed, his 20,000 followers disappeared, and his right (well, ability) to create a new handle non-existent — indeed, it’s expressly forbidden. He has been rendered a Twitterverse non-person. The reason why this has come to pass remains unknown, except to Twittercrats who issued the death sentence.
Merritt has co-founded two uber-patriotic companies (employing hundreds in the Savannah area): Nine Line Apparel and Georgia Land and Cattle. They’re about a lot of things, including guns and Old Glory. In the past, he has noticed that when he tweeted about such topics, his retweets, likes, etc. experienced a huge drop-off. He felt he was being targeted for ghost banning, and believes his strong Second Amendment stand is the principle reason behind his account’s eventual demise.
The Merritt campaign (here’s the website) is intentionally a grassroots effort, hence it’s dependent on social-media platforms for getting out messages (his opponent, incumbent Republican congressman Buddy Carter, one of the House’s wealthier members, might not have so constrained a reelection strategy). So this is a big and suspicious blow.
What we do know is this: The platoon leader who risked his life in Iraq’s Tigris River Valley so Twitter (yes, a private company) could contrive its special brand of more Miranda-philic rights — and enforce them regularly on distinctly conservative voices — has found out that no good favor goes unpunished in the Silicon Valley.