The article in The Next Web linked in the tweet above is more than a year old and has nothing to do with former LAPD officer Christopher Dorner. Nonetheless, the @Occupythemob tweet has been re-tweeted more than 1,600 times and a lot of Tweeters are repeating the accusation that Twitter has been censoring Dorner-related tweets.
Shame on Twitter for the censorship of the Chris Dorner LAPD hashtag. No First Amendment on Twitter is this China? … http://t.co/KlUdvpSj
— Mrs Stephanie Amoako ?????? (@MzJulesNYC) February 9, 2013
https://twitter.com/EseJandro/status/300342852364410880
BREAKING: Reports that @Twitter has been censoring tweets with the #Dorner hashtag at the rquest of @LAPDChiefBeck and the #LAPD.
— Kelsey Duckett (@KelseyDuckett) February 10, 2013
.@Wytchfinder_Gen I've seen posts that say @twitter is bowing to #LAPD pressure and censoring the streams. #Dorner.
— Sharon (@srb2245) February 10, 2013
Twitter is censoring all tweets with the word #Dorner. WTF?! This is the Internet, LAPD!
— Jess S. (@Jess92) February 10, 2013
https://twitter.com/Art4Gearheads/status/300736624810147840
#dorner #ows #lapd ok, twitter is censoring, everyone change everything except hash tag #dorner they cannot stop that tag.
— Zane Johnson (@DJ_Contraption) February 10, 2013
Twitter censoring dorner hashtags?!?!?! Well I be damned. Thought I lived in AMERICA!
— StarStuddedStatik ® (@statik310) February 10, 2013
Twitter is Censoring Tweets about #Dorner & #LAPD – caj you people see how scared this government is about their corruption being exposed ?
— Arthur Demurchyan (@KingArt86) February 10, 2013
Twitter caught censoring #Dorner hashtag at request of #LAPD. http://t.co/mG7NZRCw
— ?????? ???? (@SavantSociety) February 10, 2013
https://twitter.com/rakingmuck/status/300122972394508288
I was wondering why Instagram is censoring certain Dorner hashtags, then I realized who owns it. Twitter is now censored too. Whores.
— Jojabber (@Jojabber) February 9, 2013
At least one Twitter users accused Twitter of going one step further, censoring tweets complaining about censorship:
Did anyone notice? @Occupythemob had a 2k retweet post on twitter censoring "#Dorner", which always came up first on searches. It's gone now
— Victor "Punch Nazis" Licata (@VictorLicata1) February 10, 2013
The tweet in question is right here, and it comes up first when searching “Dorner censoring twitter.”
Twitchy has searched in vain for any evidence whatsoever in support of these allegations.
Our verdict: Hoax.
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