Conservative commentator Candace Owens received an apology from Twitter on Sunday after her account was locked following reports of violations of the social media platform’s rules.
In a brief email shared by Owens on Sunday, Twitter Support said it had restored her account. “BLOWN AWAY by the amount of patriots that just came to my side to make this happen,” Owens tweeted.
BLOWN AWAY by the amount of patriots that just came to my side to make this happen.
I will be periscoping LIVE about this entire debacle, in 30 mins.
I am blessed to know you all. ?? pic.twitter.com/r91vwRoVuA— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) August 5, 2018
Earlier in the morning, Charlie Kirk said that his fellow Turning Point USA colleague received a 12-hour suspension on Twitter because of a “double standard” against conservatives.
Kirk said Owens “allegedly violated Twitter terms in service” after she copied tweets from Sarah Jeong, the latest addition to the New York Times’ editorial board.
UNREAL! @RealCandaceO has been banned from tweeting for 12 hours because she allegedly violated Twitter terms in service
She tweeted nothing wrong!
And interestingly @sarahjeong hasn’t been banned or suspended
Why was Candace banned?
Because she is a conservative
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) August 5, 2018
“[S]he got banned by COPYING [Jeong] tweets and replacing “white” with “black” and then [Twitter] bans her for 12 hours,” Kirk said.
By the way, she got banned by COPYING @sarahjeong tweets and replacing “white” with “black” and then @Twitter bans her for 12 hours
Double standard!! https://t.co/IVA2QmF2EM
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) August 5, 2018
Twitter did not respond to a request for comment.
On Saturday, Owens called attention to racially charged tweets Jeong sent in years past for which she has come under fire in recent days. Owens, who is black, tweeted out the text of one of those tweets, swapping out the word “white” for “black.”
“Black people are only fit to live underground like groveling goblins. They have stopped breeding and will all go extinct soon. I enjoy being cruel to old black women,” she tweeted.
Black people are only fit to live underground like groveling goblins. They have stopped breeding and will all go extinct soon. I enjoy being cruel to old black women.
The above statements are from @nytimes editor @sarahjeong. I simply swapped out the word “white” for “black”.
— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) August 4, 2018
“No matter which way you slice it, [Jeong] is a racist. It is ABHORRENT that the failing [New York Times] has decided to stand by her,” Owens added in a follow-up tweet. “Hoping for the extermination of ANY race, is indefensible behavior.”
Owens also appeared to do a similar swap, replacing “white” with “Jewish.” However, that tweet appears to have been deleted, though users shared screenshots of the tweet.
. @RealCandaceO was banned for 12 hours after replacing the word “white” with “jewish” in one of @sarahjeong’s racist tweets.
sarah jeong’s account remains unbanned. pic.twitter.com/5oAuWoo2JU
— mcm-ct.com (@mcm_ct) August 5, 2018
Several right-wing figures on Twitter accused Twitter of espousing a double standard, arguing that the platform didn’t censor Jeong in the same way.
.@RealCandaceO was banned by @Twitter because @Jack approves of racists attacks against white people and this proves it. She literally quoted the #NYT editor swapping race. I wonder what would happen if all #whitepeople deleted the Twitter app one day? Snapchat anyone? pic.twitter.com/mIGQuVBWv8
— Katrina Pierson (@KatrinaPierson) August 5, 2018
Amid backlash, the Times put out a statement last week saying it stood by Jeong, noting that at the time she had been responding to harassment online for being a young Asian woman “by imitating the rhetoric of her harassers.” The statement from the Times also said that such rhetoric from Jeong won’t be acceptable moving forward.
Kirk’s accusation against Twitter for treating conservatives unfairly comes after the social media platform is rebounding from a “shadow banning” fiasco in which conservative figures temporarily suffered decreased the visibility as their accounts did not show up on the auto-populated drop-down search box.
Last week, Twitter issued a 12-hour suspension to GOP Missouri Senate candidate Austin Petersen for “abusive behavior.”
[Opinion: The soft bigotry of the New York Times]
