‘Euphemism for censorship’? Twitter permanently bans Gateway Pundit founder Jim Hoft for violations of ‘civic integrity policy’
The founder and editor of the right-wing Gateway Pundit website has been permanently banned from Twitter, leaving the liberal left “thrilled” and conservatives wondering who will be silenced next.
The @gatewaypundit Twitter handle belonging to Jim Hoft with more than 375,000 followers was abruptly banned on Saturday night. “The account was permanently suspended for repeated violations of our civic integrity policy,” a Twitter spokesperson confirmed in a brief statement.
Twitter did not clarify which violation was the last straw, as the account seemed to be not very active recently. The conservative publication itself has long faced criticism from the left for pushing “lies” and “conspiracies.”
I don't agree with Twitter banning people for sharing posts with people that chose to follow us...It's not like we're making people who don't follow us read our posts...Twitter's "community guidelines" are a euphemism for censorship
— SIGMA ALDO (@HindlesKitchen) February 7, 2021
Twitter's recently updated civic integrity policy introduces a system of strikes and increasingly severe punishments, among other things, for pushing “disputed claims that could undermine faith in the process itself, such as unverified information about election rigging, ballot tampering, vote tallying, or certification of election results.”
That's a full blown banning. Jim Hoft and his team have been among the few in conservative who still have the guts to call out voter fraud.One by one the remaining dissenters will be removed.
— JD Rucker (@JDRucker) February 7, 2021
“Oh s**t they got my boss,” journalist and Pundit contributor Cassandra Fairbanks tweeted. In response to ‘you’re next!’ threats, she quipped that from now on she will be careful not to wrongthink and will only tweet the opposite of what she believes.
Liberals are great. Biden won fairly. They totally don’t want us all dead.
— Cassandra Fairbanks (@CassandraRules) February 6, 2021
Liberals celebrated the ban, many openly delighting, while others wondered what took Twitter so long.
Thrilled to see the Gateway Pundit has been suspended.
— 💭 (@samthielman) February 7, 2021
Ha Ha! Gateway Pundit suspended. Maybe @gatewaypundit should stop spreading lies and disinformation. pic.twitter.com/bzyFmLClEX
— Gregg Housh (@GreggHoush) February 7, 2021
Some sought to justify the move, not as the latest act of censorship of conservative voices, but rather a sincere desire by a private corporation to “limit the spread of dangerous disinformation.”
All of this deleting of accounts by Twitter is troubling, but I understand a private company believing they have an ethical responsibility to try to prevent the spread to millions of the sort of lies that caused the Jan 6 insurrection. @gatewaypundit@CassandraRules
— Ross Kaminsky (@Rossputin) February 7, 2021
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