Twitter plays by a bizarre set of rules.
Verified Twitter accounts calling for a second Holocaust of the Jews will not be banned from the social media platform provided they eventually delete their pro-genocide tweets, a Twitter spokesperson told the Washington Examiner.
“If Tweets are deleted,” the spokesperson said, “we cannot take enforcement action against them. And, we don’t get into hypotheticals on deleted Tweets — as in, did they or did they not violate the Twitter Rules.”
In other words, a verified account can tweet as much as it wants in support of the wholesale slaughter of the Jews and not run afoul of Twitter’s censors so long as the user eventually deletes the antisemitic messages.
That’s a hell of a thing, considering former President Donald Trump was permanently banned from Twitter in January for insisting the 2020 election was stolen.
“The world today needs a Hitler,” freelance journalist Adeel Raja tweeted Sunday to his more than 80,000 followers.
Earlier, in 2014, he tweeted in reference to the World Cup, “The only reason I’m supporting Germany in the finals is – Hitler was a German and he did good with those Jews!”
Raja, whose byline appeared on CNN’s website as recently as Sept. 2020, also tweeted in 2014, “My support for Germany is due to what Hitler did with Jews!” and “Hail Hitler!”
Raja’s most recent pro-Holocaust remark comes amid the recent escalation in hostilities between Israel and Palestine.
“What the Jews are doing in Palestine is similar to what Indian Hindus are doing in Occupied Kashmir. Same tactics,” he said this weekend.
After originally saying he “never heard of” the freelancer, CNN spokesman Matt Dornic told the Washington Examiner Raja will no longer be allowed to work for CNN.
“Adeel Raja has never been a CNN employee,” Dornic said. “As a freelancer, his reporting contributed to some newsgathering efforts from Islamabad. However, in light of these abhorrent statements, he will not be working with CNN again in any capacity.”
As of this writing, Raja’s Twitter account is still active, though his pro-Hitler and pro-Holocaust tweets have been deleted.
On May 11, Bollywood actress Veena Malik tweeted a fake quote in support of the Palestinian side of the Israel-Gaza conflict.
“I would have killed all the Jews of the world … but I kept some to show the world why I killed them,” Malik said in a since-deleted tweet to her more than 1.2 million followers.
Adolf Hitler never said this.
Malik later tweeted a political cartoon showing a hook-nosed Israeli soldier staring into a mirror and seeing a Nazi Wehrmacht soldier staring back.
“The irony of becoming what you once hated the Most,” she tweeted on May 14, adding the hashtag, “#IsraelWarCrimes.”
This tweet is still live.
“Netanyahu is a war criminal…!!!” Malik tweeted Saturday.
Like Raja, Malik’s Twitter account is still active.
In contrast, Trump was permanently banned in January for claiming the 2020 election was stolen.
“The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future,” Trump tweeted on the morning of Jan. 8, two days after the Capitol riot. “They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!”
He tweeted a little later: “To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.”
Twitter then made the day to pull the plug on the former president’s account.
Trump’s tweet about skipping the inauguration specifically was “further confirmation that the election was not legitimate,” Twitter explained at the time, arguing it considered the former president’s two tweets “encouragement to those potentially considering violent acts.”
The social media company explained:
Our public interest framework exists to enable the public to hear from elected officials and world leaders directly. It is built on a principle that the people have a right to hold power to account in the open. However, we made it clear going back years that these accounts are not above our rules entirely and cannot use Twitter to incite violence.
Twitter claims it banned Trump because he was uniquely positioned to do harm by virtue of the fact he was a U.S. president. Twitter also claims it banned Trump for a pattern of offensive rhetoric and reckless behavior, not just those two tweets. Those two tweets were simply the final straws. Lastly, Twitter claims the key difference between Trump and the pro-Holocaust crowd is the former president didn’t delete his offending tweets.
But if this is its justification for the permanent ban, then how is the Twitter account of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, still active? His many anti-Israel tweets, which are unambiguously pro-genocide, haven’t been deleted.
Twitter’s official explanation for the difference between its treatment of Trump and verified pro-Holocaust accounts only highlights the discrepancy in rules enforcement.
Where, exactly, does Twitter draw the line insofar as calls to violence are concerned?
If Twitter is in the business of policing users who are seen as inciting violence, then shouldn’t the rules apply to everyone — former presidents, foreign leaders, journalists, and actresses alike? If not, why not?
Is the delete function really the deciding factor in whether repeated calls to violence are considered acceptable or unacceptable by the tech giant? If this is the case, then what are we to make of Raja, whose pro-Holocaust tweets from 2014 were live until this weekend, or even the Ayatollah, who hasn’t deleted any of his tweets calling for the total destruction of Israel?
Does Twitter really consider the actress who approvingly “quotes” Hitler less harmful than the president who announces he won’t attend an inauguration simply because the Hitler fan eventually deleted her tweet?
This can’t be the deciding factor because, again, Twitter has taken no action against the Ayatollah.
Where does Twitter draw the line?
Even with all the possible caveats (Trump is more powerful, he has a larger platform, they deleted their tweets, etc.), the broader question remains: If Twitter sees Trump’s post-election behavior as sufficient to earn him a lifetime ban, then how does it explain the existence of verified accounts that repeatedly cheer genocide and Hitler? The Ayatollah, Malik, and Raja have repeatedly called for a second Holocaust. This is just as bad, if not many, many times worse than anything Trump said.
Yet, Trump is the only one who has been permanently banned from Twitter.
