In a sign of the times, Twitter censored Catholic World Report over its accurate description of a biological male identifying as a transgender woman.
Catholic World Report, a news outlet founded 30 years ago that reports on current events with a Catholic perspective, sought to promote a story about President Joe Biden’s nominee for Assistant Secretary for Health at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The tweet about the story accurately stated:
“Biden plans to nominate Dr. Rachel Levine, a biological man identifying as a transgender woman who has served as Pennsylvania’s health secretary since 2017, to be HHS Assistant Secretary for Health. Levine is also a supporter of the contraceptive mandate.”
According to screenshots provided by Catholic World Report, Twitter found the tweet to violate its “rules against hateful conduct.” The outlet’s response to the censorship provided a succinct summary of the sitatuion: “Since Levine is ‘transgender’, it’s curious why Twitter would think it harmful or hateful to note what Levine is ‘trans-gendering’ from or to.”
Catholic World Report refused to delete the tweet in question to regain access to its account, instead choosing to appeal the decision. According to reporting by the news outlet, Twitter responded to the appeal by denying it, saying that there was indeed a violation and that the decision would not be overturned.
Instead of giving in to Twitter’s demands to delete the tweet, Catholic World Report worked to bring attention to its plight. Two days after the denied appeal, Twitter unlocked its account without removing the tweet. Twitter provided no comment on why it had chosen to overturn the decision after all, and it is not clear what prompted the course change.
Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, gave a statement regarding the Catholic World Report situation. He challenged Twitter’s stance on the issue by saying:
“On January 28, I quoted Pope Francis saying gender ideology is ‘demonic.’ Would that make the pope a purveyor of hate speech? I dare Twitter to silence the Holy Father. Let’s get this settled right now.”
The Media Research Center has not received a response to a request for comment from Twitter at the time of publication.
Conservatives are under attack. Contact Twitter's leadership by tweeting at the official @Twitter account or Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey @Jack and demand that the platform mirror the First Amendment: Tech giants should afford their users nothing less than the free speech and free exercise of religion embodied in the First Amendment as interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court. If you have been censored, contact us at the Media Research Center contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
