By Staff Writer, Dalton Johnson
When Twitter took down a “New York Post” article about current President Elect Joe Biden’s son Hunter and his shady dealings with foreign countries back in October, conservatives and the public alike were outraged. Many felt uncomfortable by the fact that Twitter was censoring creditable information about a Presidential candidate. For conservatives however, this was the latest of many instances that Twitter has done to suppress conservative news and personalities over the years.
One example is the temporary suspension of conservative speaker Cadence Owens Twitter account. In May of 2020, Owens’ account was suspended after encouraging the citizens of Michigan to defy the states lockdown policies. The tweet did not include any violent language toward the Government of Michigan.
Twitter however still flagged the tweet for violating their policy of spreading misinformation about Covid 19. Several conservatives on the platform were outraged that Owens account was suspended just for stating a different opinion about lockdowns.
One of the notable ways Twitter is suppressing conservative views is putting fact checks on President Donald Trump’s tweets. In one instance, the President questioned mail in voting. Twitter fact checked the tweet saying to users to “get the facts about mail in voting.” According to a “New York Post” article about the situation, the link that Twitter used to fact check the President was an article published by CNN saying that Trump’s claims about potential fraud when using mail in voting were wrong.
Trump tweeted this in May, and after the 2020 election there were many instances of voter fraud. There were so many instances of voter fraud that the GOP complied a 234 page sworn affidavit that includes eye witness accounts from poll workers who saw voter fraud. Therefore, Trump was correct in raising concerns about mail in voting and voter fraud, Twitter on the other hand disputed the Presidents’ claims. If Twitter had not fact checked the tweet or at least posted an article from another source that disputed the CNN article, more citizens could have been more informed about the potential fraud associated with mail in voting.
Not only has Twitter censored conservatives on their platform, but inside the Twitter organization as well, according to a Vox article published in 2018. In an interview with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, he expressed that Twitter has more left leaning employees than right leaning employees. Dorsey also mentioned that many conservative Twitter employees, “Don’t feel safe to express their opinions at the company.”
The 1st Amendment of the Constitution is the most fundamental right of our country. It is a right that few countries have, but until social media organizations like Twitter stop censoring conservative content, our country will fall short of this right.
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