Twitter took months to ban neo-Nazi accounts, repeatedly issuing harassing and often violent threats at other members of the social media community, but it took mere minutes, apparently, to ban conservative powerhouse, @GayPatriot for calling Chelsea Manning by his real name.
The @GayPatriot account was indefinitely suspended for “harassment” after GayPatriot (who is both gay and a patriot) tweeted “You’re a traitor, Bradley,” at Chelsea Manning’s Twitter account.
Bruce, who runs GayPatriot, Tweeted out the official reprimand from his alternate account.
Welp. pic.twitter.com/fblHUSyBH8
— Bruce On The Loose (@BruceOnLoose) May 28, 2018
The exact offense isn’t listed, but there’s nothing remotely threatening or harassing about the response other than that it refers to Chelsea Manning by his original name, Bradley — the name Chelsea used full time before undergoing gender reassignment surgery while serving time in prison for leaking thousands of classified documents, including video, to Wikileaks.
As for whether calling Chelsea Manning a “traitor” is offensive and harassing, well, GayPatriot certainly isn’t the first person on social media to suggest that someone who was convicted on several counts of the Espionage Act for providing the enemy with information that ultimately led to the deaths of American soldiers might have committed a heinous crime.
Twitter users were quick to respond to the ban in the only appropriate way: by asking Twitter, “WTF?”
Welp. pic.twitter.com/fblHUSyBH8
— Bruce On The Loose (@BruceOnLoose) May 28, 2018
Ridiculous https://t.co/nhZciRvr9v
— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) May 30, 2018
.@GayPatriot suspended from twitter for calling Chelsea Manning a traitor. In January. An objectively true statement. No swearing or anything.
You will hold the opinions @Twitter wants you to hold, or else.
— Kayla Elizabeth (@VixenRogue) May 28, 2018
Others, like the NRA’s Dana Loesch, pointed out that Twitter has done nothing to stem the endless flow of violent threats from leftists, but took less than 24 hours to shut down an incorrect name.
90% of my mentions are eleventy-thousand times worse than this and Twitter has no problem with any of those. https://t.co/60reDHYa6N
— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) May 30, 2018
Twitter user and commentator Jim Treacher was quick to point out that Twitter has an itchy finger when it comes to banning people the Left’s beloved hero Chelsea Manning can’t handle.
I was suspended for tweeting some emojis at that traitor. EMOJIS.
— Jim Treacher (@jtLOL) May 30, 2018
Twitter has pledged to make their social network a “friendlier” place. But it’s clear they only intend to make it friendly for very specific people.