As wave of Republicans are censored online, no penalty for Democrats who have encouraged violence
January 12, 2021
In the wake of the Capitol riot last week, big tech has censored a number of Republicans, most notably Donald Trump. In addition to platforms such as Facebook, Tik Tok, and Instagram, Twitter has permanently suspended the president’s account “due to the risk of further incitement of violence” based on the following two tweets:
“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. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!”
“To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.”
Regardless of whether you agree with Twitter that banning Trump was the correct course of action, it’s worth pointing out that for years, Twitter has failed to uphold these same standards when it comes to Democrats.
Just last summer, there were multiple BLM riots across the country in response to the killing of George Floyd. Nikole Hannah-Jones of the New York Times condoned the violence in a since-deleted tweet, saying that “it would be an honor” to “call them the 1619 riots.” Hannah-Jones still has access to her Twitter account.
At a rally in 2018, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) encouraged her supporters to harass members of the Trump administration: “If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd. And you push back on them. And you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.”
Waters still has access to her social media accounts.
Just a few months ago, in the lead-up to the contentious November 3 election, Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) said, “There needs to be unrest in the streets for as long as there is unrest in our lives.”
Pressley still has access to her social media accounts.
Obama’s former Attorney General, Eric Holder, said at a campaign event in 2018 that, “When [Republicans] go low, we kick them.”
Holder still has access to his social media accounts.
At the 2017 Women’s March in Washington D.C., singer and Democratic activist Madonna told a large crowd that she has “thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House.” Madonna still has access to her social media accounts.
The above is only a small sampling of the Democrats who have encouraged violence, but whose social media accounts remain active. A more complete list can be found in this video:
Remember this video forever
pic.twitter.com/3nMNlxl5Q8— E (@ElijahSchaffer) January 12, 2021
None of this is to argue that these Democrats should be censored, but to point out that Silicon Valley has a double standard when it comes to enforcement. Democrats can say whatever they want and face no retribution, but Republicans will have their accounts shadow-banned, frozen, and even permanently suspended for saying things that our big tech overlords deem inappropriate.