Whitlock’s suspension is the latest example of what appears to be selective enforcement of the Twitter rules.
By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News
In an apparent act of censorship, Twitter locked the account of Jason Whitlock, citing his tweet criticizing a Black Lives Matter founder for her purchase of a pricey home in an upscale Los Angeles neighborhood as a “violation of the Twitter Rules.”
Whitlock, who is black, reposted a news story on Friday about BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors buying a $1.4 million home in the Topanga Canyon neighborhood.
Just 1.4% of the neighborhood’s residents identify as black, and Whitlock sarcastically added his own caption alongside the story, writing, “She’s with her people!”
Although Cullors’ home purchase was covered by major media outlets including the New York Post and Grio, Twitter said that Whitlock’s tweet revealed “private information.”
“You may not publish or post other people’s private information without their express authorization and permission,” the terms-of-service violation message from Twitter explained.
Some may be surprised to learn that Twitter’s official policy is to freeze accounts that post private information about individuals, as many left-wing users on the social media platform regularly engage in “doxxing.”
Doxxing refers to the practice of revealing personal information, such as full names, home addresses, workplaces, and supervisor’s names, of Twitter accounts, typically for the purpose of seeking retribution over the content of a tweet.
After the Capitol Hill riots, left-wing Twitter activists regularly scoured the platform for the tweets of people who said they’d been present at the protests.
The activists then forwarded the tweets to the employers of the people who said they’d attended, and encouraged other Twitter users to join in, hoping to create social pressure that would cause people to be fired from their jobs or otherwise penalized.
Whitlock’s suspension is the latest example of what appears to be selective enforcement of the Twitter rules.
The social media giant came under fire for freezing the account of the New York Post in October 2020 after the newspaper had shared an unflattering story about then-presidential candidate Joe Biden’s son, Hunter.
At the time, the FBI had reportedly opened a probe into a laptop containing classified and other highly sensitive information that Hunter Biden had abandoned at a Delaware computer repair shop.
Twitter even froze the accounts of people who shared the stories, including major Republican lawmakers.
After public backlash, Twitter reversed its policy, unfreezing the Post’s account and allowing users to share the story.