Twitter Announces It’s Suspending Accounts For ‘Attempting To Evade An Account Suspension’

Twitter recently decided to suspend Alex Jones.

“I can confirm that a tweet was reported to us which contained a link to a video on Periscope,” a Twitter spokesperson told CNBC. “Upon review we determined it violated our rules and required the account to delete the tweet and video.”

He has access to his account and can lurk, but he can’t tweet or retweet anything for seven days.

It’s weird, because this is pretty inconsistent with what Jack just told us last week. He was all, “If we succumb and simply react to outside pressure, rather than straightforward principles we enforce (and evolve) impartially regardless of political viewpoints, we become a service that’s constructed by our personal views that can swing in any direction. That’s not us.”

Obviously it is, because Twitter didn’t say specifically what Jones did that violated its rules. He’s BEEN doing the same thing for years. What suddenly changed?

They’re succumbing to outside pressure.

As I’ve stated MANY times before, I cannot stand Alex Jones. I think he’s a horrific, unprincipled, obnoxious imbecile. However, I know a slippery slope when I see one. How long before Twitter starts to consider “misgendering” someone as “hate speech”? How long until saying, “Build that wall!” is construed as a “racist” statement?

These are legitimate concerns.

Twitter is making everything worse. It recently stated that it’s launching a new initiative to suspend Twitter accounts for “attempting to evade an account suspension.” Which…HUH?

This week, we are suspending accounts for attempting to evade an account suspension. These accounts were previously suspended for abusive behavior or evading a previous suspension, and are not allowed to continue using Twitter.

— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) August 14, 2018

PS– if they “accidentally” suspend you, LOLZ SRY. DM them or something.

We will continue this work in the coming weeks as we identify others who are attempting to Tweet following an account suspension. If you believe your account has been suspended in error, please let us know.https://t.co/RUWvNoQt2G

— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) August 14, 2018

@jtLOL was partially suspended for reasons we do not know. This is him tweeting from his other account–

And here we go again… pic.twitter.com/vEu5R5ou7Y

— Sean Medlock (@Sean_Medlock) August 14, 2018

No idea why. A few weeks ago I got suspended after a false report, and I had no idea which tweet(s) did it that time either. 🤷‍♂️

— Sean Medlock (@Sean_Medlock) August 14, 2018

I mean, it’s their platform. They can suspend anyone they want, for any reason they want. It would be nice to know why, but they’re under no obligation to tell you.

— Sean Medlock (@Sean_Medlock) August 14, 2018

Look, @Twitter can make up any rules it wants, and enforce those rules any way it wants. And its users can point out when stuff like this happens to them for no given reason.

— Jim Treacher (@jtLOL) August 15, 2018

What rule did I break? I have no idea, and they’re not going to tell me. How do I avoid breaking that rule again? Good question.

— Jim Treacher (@jtLOL) August 15, 2018

Bingo. Twitter can ultimately do whatever it wants, but it needs to stop pretending like it has some sort of definitive guideline it’s abiding by, because it’s not. It’s picking and choosing, period.

h/t Twitchy