The conservative satire site, The Babylon Bee, was recently locked out of its Twitter account for tweeting a joke that named Assistant Secretary of Health Rachel Levine, who is transgender, the “Man of the Year.” According to Twitter, The Babylon Bee’s comment constituted a violation of its “hateful conduct” policy; as a result, the Bee is unable to post to its account until it deletes the Tweet. TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk and Fox News host Tucker Carlson were also locked out of their accounts over comments regarding Levine.
Twitter has the power to delete the offending Tweet on its own to restore The Babylon Bee’s account; however, Twitter is instead forcing the Bee to admit guilt in spreading hateful conduct to regain access. By deleting the Tweet, the Bee would acknowledge that it violated Twitter rules. The Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon, as well as Kirk and Carlson, have all chosen the correct and honorable approach of refusing to grovel to Big Tech.
With The Babylon Bee’s Twitter account still in purgatory one month later, these developments raise the question as to why Twitter is forcing the people whose accounts were suspended to apologize rather than simply delete the Tweets by itself. If the left truly considers the transgender ideology to be logically and philosophically coherent, then they should have no problem inviting dissent. After all, if opposition to leftwing orthodoxy is rooted merely in bigotry and conspiracy theories, then the left would win handily in the free and open marketplace of ideas. Yet, Twitter does not even want people to have the discussion.
Twitter’s abuse of its ability to silence opinions it disagrees with is problematic for several reasons. Firstly, Twitter’s standard of conduct is not applied evenly. Twitter will lock The Babylon Bee out of its account for telling a joke about a public figure, permanently ban a sitting Congresswoman for violating its “COVID-19 misinformation policy,” and suppress a story about President Biden’s son Hunter before the election. However, Russian government accounts are still permitted to spread propaganda about the war in Ukraine, and Twitter allowed users to promote the falsehood that President Trump was removing mailboxes prior to the 2020 election. If Twitter is truly concerned with hate speech and misinformation and not merely with forwarding its political agenda, then it must explain why conservative opinions are disproportionately targeted for removal.
Moreover, Twitter’s banning of The Babylon Bee was based on a false premise. Dr. Rachel Levine is biologically male, and it is not “hate speech” nor “harassment” to state such realities publicly. By demanding that The Babylon Bee apologize, Twitter is not only forcing the writers at the site to violate their conscience but to actively aid in the promotion of falsehoods.
To dispel any lingering doubt that Twitter is acting in bad faith, the social media company has continued to censor conservative voices since the incident with the Bee. The account LibsOfTikTok, which reposts videos of leftists promoting transgender ideology in the education system, was briefly suspended twice before being reinstated each time. Additionally, the pro-life account LifeNewsHQ was temporarily locked out of its account for posting a picture of an illegally aborted baby despite marking the post as sensitive in accordance with Twitter rules. The left simply cannot tolerate engagement with the consequences of its own ideology.
The left’s hysteria with alternative viewpoints reached its apotheosis with the approval of Elon Musk’s deal to buy Twitter. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO has expressed his intention to reorient the social media platform toward political neutrality and freedom of speech. Democrats, including Twitter employees, have responded by calling Musk “dangerous for democracy.” There is an obvious contradiction in describing the ability to speak freely as a threat to democracy. Freedom of speech that only applies to positions approved by the ruling elite is the antithesis of democracy, revealing that, for the left, censorship is merely a guise for maintaining political power. Former U.S. Representative Ron Paul has said, “Truth is treason in the empire of lies.” The Babylon Bee has committed treason against the radical left. Twitter is afraid that too much speech will unravel its empire of lies, which is precisely why conservatives must keep speaking.
Russell Kitsis
Russell Kitsis is a Jewish conservative student at Babson College. Russell is studying finance and hopes to work in investment banking upon graduation.
The views expressed in this article are the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Lone Conservative staff.
