The Center for Immigration Studies said this week that Twitter denied its request to pay to promote one of its tweets because it included the phrase “illegal aliens.”
CIS Executive Director Mark Krikorian tweeted Tuesday that Twitter blocked the request because that phrase amounts to “hateful content.”
[Also read: Trump warns Google, Facebook, Twitter: ‘Better be careful’ about political bias]
Twitter just rejected paid promotion of the tweet below, saying: “This determination is based on the following Twitter Ads policy: Hateful Content”. It’s because it contains the phrase “illegal alien”, which @TwitterAdsHelp deems unacceptable. https://t.co/1X7aDSLmo5
— Mark Krikorian (@MarkSKrikorian) September 11, 2018
In a series of tweets, CIS argued that Twitter’s decision makes no sense because the phrase “illegal aliens” is found in U.S. law, and is used by the Supreme Court. It cited several examples:
2/ From Arizona v. United States (2012): “There is no reason Arizona cannot make it a state crime for a removable alien (or any illegal alien, for that matter) to remain present in Arizona.”https://t.co/D3MDrD0gGr
— Center for Immigration Studies (@CIS_org) September 11, 2018
5/ Code of Federal Regulations: “Illegal alien means any person who is not lawfully admitted for permanent residence in the United States or who has not been authorized by the Attorney General to accept employment in the United States.”https://t.co/XUtTarjR7b
— Center for Immigration Studies (@CIS_org) September 11, 2018
Twitter’s decision comes as conservatives continue to argue that Twitter is biased against them, and is making content decisions based on that bias.
President Trump has complained about Twitter, Facebook, and Google, and Congress has held a few hearings to talk about censorship on those social media platforms.
Last week, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey rejected the idea that Twitter was silencing conservatives, and said his company is trying to be transparent about how it makes these choices in a bid to keep the trust of its users.
