Earlier today, the Federalist posted a piece by a dermatologist featuring some, um, questionable advice on COVID19 containment:
The Federalist is already at the voluntary infection party phase of things with coronavirus: pic.twitter.com/MWEy3AV5OD
— Courtney Hagle (@CourtneyHagle) March 25, 2020
Unsurprisingly, the Federalist took a pretty sound beating from across the political spectrum.
But evidently that wasn’t enough for the powers that be at Twitter:
Even if you don't agree with this Federalist take, this "warning" from Twitter is incredibly misleading. Not sure I have ever seen anything like this here before. pic.twitter.com/zNvBSNtSaC
— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) March 25, 2020
Click on the story in the tweet and you get a warning from Twitter that the link isn't safe. I've never seen that before. pic.twitter.com/dVRCzjAlBc
— Varad Mehta (@varadmehta) March 25, 2020
The warning wasn’t the end of it:
So now Twitter deleted @FDRLST’s article tweet in its entirety.
What the actual f***?
I totally disagree with the take but I will not accept Big Tech banning journalism (good or bad) that they dislike.
— Brad "Terrible Takes” Polumbo (@brad_polumbo) March 25, 2020
— Brad "Terrible Takes” Polumbo (@brad_polumbo) March 25, 2020
Twitter deleted the Federalist’s tweet sharing the controversial post and also temporary locked the Federalist’s account:
"Twitter temporarily locked the account of The Federalist Wednesday after the conservative opinion site published a piece … that proposed the deliberate spread of the coronavirus in order to boost immunity to the disease." https://t.co/frTQImR9lE
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) March 25, 2020
So, Twitter was just taking action against the spread of potentially harmful information. In that case, we have no reason to take issue with their decision.
Except we actually have pretty good reason to take issue with their decision.
This Twitter policy is entirely ad hoc. https://t.co/wgxpyzrXbv
— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) March 25, 2020
It really is. Because Twitter’s concern about harmful misinformation appears to be highly selective.
I get it. Bad advice. Maybe a responsible platform wouldn't let you access it. But, then, who is to say whether or not the U.S. military deliberately started the COVID-19 outbreak in China?
— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) March 25, 2020
Don't have to agree with the piece but stunning that Twitter labels this while allowing the Chinese State to link to conspiracy sites claiming Wuhan virus was manufactured and released by the US Military. cc @leslieberland https://t.co/IjT5hBiccF
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) March 25, 2020
This.
Again… Twitter was fine with false Chinese propaganda. https://t.co/MLk64Y71AG
— Pradheep J. Shanker (@Neoavatara) March 25, 2020
CCP gaslighting the entire world is fine though.
— Troy M (@reuterrat) March 25, 2020
Yep. Not even worth a finger-wag from Twitter.
A good point. Twitter will censor conservative journalists with a bad take but allow the Chinese and Iranian regimes to spout off misinformation unchecked?!? Wtf are these priorities?!? https://t.co/fijm1sH5Py
— Brad "Terrible Takes” Polumbo (@brad_polumbo) March 25, 2020
These priorities are garbage, is what they are.