Once in a blue moon, Twitter actually targets the left. Twitter urged Democratic House candidate Elizabeth Hernandez to remove a tweet on September 1 that the platform claimed violated its policies.
Hernandez is running against Republican Rep. Kevin Brady in Texas’s 8th Congressional District. In the tweet that Twitter claimed violated its policies, Hernandez’s campaign account responded to a supporter who was bemoaning that some Texan relatives support President Donald Trump. The August 18 response allegedly stated, “Thank you! And remind all of your Trump supporting relatives to vote on Wednesday, November 4! (Since they’re Trump supporters, they might fall for it. Just saying....)” The response also included a laughing emoji.
Two weeks later, the tweet was flagged for giving a false election date and Twitter reportedly asked Hernandez to remove the tweet, which the platform claimed violated its policy on civic integrity. This Twitter policy prohibits users from “posting or sharing content that may suppress participation or mislead people about when, where, or how to participate in a civic process.”
In an email to Politico, campaign spokesperson Christopher Phipps said, "In a jovial exchange with supporters on Twitter, one of our campaign staff was a little too loose with their words. The emoji at the end of the tweet indicates that the tweet was made in jest, not intended to actually mislead anyone."
In response to the Politico story, NBC reporter and author of the Byers Market Dylan Byers tweeted: “Pretty inconvenient for the conservatives who believe in the ‘social media censors conservatives’ conspiracy…”
However, this one instance does not prove that censorship against conservatives does not exist. Just a few days ago, Twitter flagged a video posted by Rep. Steve Scalise, and recently censored a post about COVID-19 deaths that Trump retweeted.
Conservatives are under attack. Contact the FCC at 1-888-225-5322 and/or via the MRC’s FCC contact form to give your take on the petition filed by the Department of Commerce regarding Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996. Demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on “hate speech” and equal footing for conservatives.
