Even as left-wing activists across the country set their hair on fire over Elon Musk’s purchase of social media giant Twitter, there has not yet been a rebirth of free speech on the platform. Texas businessman Bo French found that out this weekend, after testing the censorship regimen on the website.
French wrote to the site, “Transgenderism is a mental disorder. Gender affirming care is child abuse. Covid vaccines don’t work.”
For those words, Twitter locked out his account. French received a notice claiming his post promoted “violence against, threaten[ed], or harass[ed] other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease.”
“Following the election interfering attack on free speech in 2020 and the silencing of vaccine skeptics in 2021, Twitter continues to silence those of us who speak truth in 2022,” said French in an interview with Texas Scorecard. “There is absolutely nothing hateful or untrue about my tweet, yet despite an appeal Twitter is still locking my account. Elon Musk needs to unlock Twitter now in order to save democracy.”
The company has thus far refused to unlock his account.
In a post to Twitter on Friday, Musk explained, “We have not yet made any changes to Twitter’s content moderation policies.” He says he will be forming a “content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints.”
