Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said that “censorship” by Twitter presents a threat to the United States’s national security.
After Twitter removed a tweet from Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan and locked him out of his account for a time, Wolf wrote in a letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey on Friday.
“Such censorship is disturbing. Twitter’s conduct censoring U.S. government officials also endangers the national security,” Wolf said.
The tweet, which was removed for violating Twitter’s policy on hateful speech, read, “@CBPMarkMorgan & @USACEHQ continue to build new wall every day. Every mile helps us stop gang members, murderers, sexual predators, and drugs from entering our country. It’s a fact, walls work.” A video was also attached to the post.
A copy of the tweet was obtained and reported by the Federalist on Thursday.
DHS claimed that when the commissioner’s account was blocked, it got in contact with Twitter and attempted to appeal the decision but was denied at first.
“Only after CBP reached out to Twitter’s office of government affairs a second time and went public with this censorship, then finally Twitter admitted its bad judgment and unlocked the account,” Wolf wrote.
Twitter’s censoring of factual information poses a threat to national security.
It should not be up to corporate bureaucrats to determine what security information the American public receives. https://t.co/9WzHcn4HLn pic.twitter.com/4lHJW5vEpZ
— Acting Secretary Chad Wolf (@DHS_Wolf) October 30, 2020
A spokesman for Twitter told Politico that “the decision was reversed following an appeal by the account owner and further evaluation from our team.”
“The fact that the tweet was removed and the account locked is startling,” Wolf said. “It is hard to understand how anyone believed Mr. Morgan’s tweet promoted violence, threats or harassment. Especially considering that the facts about the border wall system support the tweet.”
Twitter also unlocked the account belonging to the New York Post on Friday, ending a more than two-week standoff with the news outlet over posts on its reporting about a laptop that purportedly belonged to Hunter Biden, the son of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.
