Twitter temporarily suspended the account of Karoline Leavitt, the communications director for Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik.
Twitter told the Washington Examiner that Leavitt was suspended in “error,” and the account has been reinstated.
Leavitt disputed Twitter’s explanation, describing it as “another purge in their ongoing effort to silence conservative voices.”
BREAKING: It appears I’ve been released from Twitter’s Conservative Jail ‼️
This was not an “error,” as Twitter claimed. This was another purge in their ongoing effort to silence conservatives voices!
We cannot back down to Big Tech Giants! Our movement is too important! https://t.co/RfY4HjwOut
— Karoline Leavitt (@kc_leavitt) May 6, 2021
Stefanik called Leavitt’s suspension an “unconstitutional overreach SILENCING our voices and freedom of speech.”
TWITTER SUSPENDS MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE IN ‘ERROR’ FOR THE SECOND TIME IN JUST WEEKS
After Leavitt’s account was reinstated, Stefanik questioned Twitter’s explanation, tweeting that suspension errors “ONLY happen to conservatives” because “Big Tech is corrupt.”
Why does this ONLY happen to conservatives?!
Absolutely outrageous.
Because Big Tech is corrupt. That’s why. https://t.co/fl3WFoDzqb
— Elise Stefanik (@EliseStefanik) May 6, 2021
Stefanik, a favorite to replace Rep. Liz Cheney in House Republican leadership, has been a vocal critic of social media companies and accused Twitter and Facebook of “engaging in illegal election interference” after the companies suppressed a New York Post report detailing Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine.
Facebook reduced the story’s distribution on its platform, and Twitter prevented the link from being shared on the platform and suspended the New York Post for sharing the story.
Republicans in the House and Senate were up in arms over the suppression and what they see as the larger issue of the suppression of conservative voices on social media after former President Donald Trump’s was banned from Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube after the Capitol Hill riot.
Those incidents bolstered a conservative movement to repeal and reform Section 230, which provides social media companies with protection for content published on their platforms by third parties.
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Rep. Ted Budd introduced the Limiting Section 230 Immunity to Good Samaritans Act in January, which would allow users to sue social media platforms that “breach good faith user agreements, censor political speech, and suppress content.”
“Big Tech companies like Twitter and Facebook have gone too far in suffocating the voices of conservatives across our country,” Budd said. “If these companies want to continue to receive special legal protection, they should be forced to play by a fair set of rules.”
