NEW: Twitter Backtracks After Flagging The Federalist

Autumn Johnson

March 24th, 2022 8:08 AM

Twitter censored The Federalist’s reporting and warned that links to the publication’s reporting “may be unsafe.”

According to The Federalist, Twitter displayed the following message to users who attempted to access the publication’s content: “The link you are trying to access has been identified by Twitter or our partners as being potentially spammy or unsafe.” The warning added that the content could be “violent or misleading.”

“Twitter is currently censoring links to @FDRLST news stories, falsely claiming that our stories are "violent or misleading content that could lead to real-world harm,” Sean Davis, CEO and co-founder of The Federalist, tweeted. “Stories about KBJ, Ron DeSantis, Hunter Biden, and majolica art are all being maliciously censored by Twitter.”

Others were quick to notice the flags.

“I get this warning message when I click on any @FDRLST article. WTF @Twitter,” conservative commentator Liz Wheeler tweeted.

Twitter later backtracked and said the message was a “mistake” and told the publication that “the URLs referenced were mistakenly marked under our unsafe links policy — this action has been reversed.”

The label followed Twitter’s censorship of The Babylon Bee over the weekend and into the week. Twitter locked the satire publication’s account for “hateful conduct” after it posted an article that joked that Rachel Levine was the site’s “Man of the Year.” Levine is a transgender woman. Adam Ford, the founder of The Babylon Bee, was also locked out of his account for “hateful conduct.”