After years of planning, the so-called #TwitterPurge has begun of accounts associated with hate politics. No, the fash isn’t happy about it, but who cares about making them happy?
Twitter began removing the accounts associated with neo-Fascists and White supremacists on Monday, including those of the website American Renaissance and its editor Jared Taylor, the League of the South and Occidental Dissent’s Brad Griffin.
The social networking website widened its policy on what constitutes hateful and harmful behavior on its platform and says it will begin enforcing stricter rules concerning it. That will include considering information contained in a person’s profile, regardless of what they actually tweet, accounts showing or expressing an affiliation with groups that use or celebrate violence to achieve their goals, which will be permanently suspended, and hate images such as Nazi symbols and possibly Pepe the Frog, regarded as a symbol among neo-Fascist circles, will now be hidden with a “sensitive media” prompt to be shown to users before they can opt to view it. Such content however will no longer be allowed on a person’s profile page, and users will be asked to remove it. Repeat violators will be banned.
In addition, Twitter will “reduce the amount of abusive behavior and hateful conduct” on the network removing profiles seen engaging in such. “If an account’s profile information includes a violent threat or multiple slurs, epithets, racist or sexist tropes, incites fear, or reduces someone to less than human, it will be permanently suspended,” a spokesperson explained.
The policy will not apply to military or government entities – which will include that of Donald Trump, who has retweeted several tweets from some that have been banned under the new rules – and it will consider exceptions for groups that are currently engaging in or have engaged in) peaceful resolution.
Over the past two years,Twitter has been working with its Trust and Safety Council to ensure that such rules still allow them to balance a platform for free speech with curbing violence and harassment.
In addition to American Renaissance, Jared Taylor, League of the South and Brad Griffin, as of Noon, EST, notable accounts that have been removed such as included those of Keystone United, Britain First, including its leaders Jayda Fransen and Paul Golding, the American Nazi Party, National Socialist Movement (NSM) leader Jeff Schoep, Traditionalist Workers Party, Generation Identity and Vanguard America. in a press statement, the American Renaissance website cited Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pal’s remarks last month accusing Twitter of political bias and being a “part of the problem” regarding an open internet, citing them as he justified scrapping net neutrality.
Still, some accounts remain, such as that of White supremacists Richard Spencer and former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, the neo-Fascist group Identity Evropa and any accounts associated with it, Gavin McInnes, founder of the violent Proud Boys, and those who have termed themselves “alt-lite” in an attempt to distance themselves from any “alt-right” associations, such as Mike Cernovich and Jack Posobiec, both of whom today have posted several tweets to push a conspiracy theory implying that antifa may be responsible for the derailment of an Amtrak train in Washington State. They were also prominent figures in the “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory that high ranking Democrats associated with Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ran a child sex ring in the basement of a Washington, DC area pizza parlor. Several Twitter users have tweeted their notice of the omissions.
If Jack Posobiac & Mike Cernovich aren’t suspended after today, then Twitter’s purge of accounts promoting violence & hate is still nothing but a joke… I don’t care how many other Nazis they suspend.
— William LeGate (@williamlegate) December 18, 2017
I don’t understand how Mike Cernovich is still active on Twitter. He regularly glorifies murder and calls on his followers to instigate real world violence.
Hopefully Mike is removed today during the great Twitter purge. @jack @twitter @Cernovich #GorillaMindset pic.twitter.com/eNE7v63u06
— Nathan Bernard (@nathanTbernard) December 18, 2017
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