Twitter goes after first ISIS Target, Israeli Diplomat

by Daniel Greenfield

The social media crackdown on the marketplace of ideas is reaching epidemic proportions.

Two recent incidents jump out at me.

1. Bosch Fawstin, a talented cartoonist who was the first target of ISIS in America during the Draw Mohammed cartoon conquest, has had his account suspended by Twitter. And the social media company appears to be gaslighting his followers by telling them that he blocked them.

Twitter's move apparently came when the Ex-Muslim visionary behind Pigman criticized Marvel Studios for its mindless cheerleading for Islam.

2. David Atar, an Israeli diplomat, had his Twitter account crippled during the debates over the Hamas attacks from Gaza.

These examples are unfortunately becoming commonplace. And, "If this goes on", the only conservatives left on social media will be the tame sort who could occasionally be published in the Washington Post.

Bosch's story is fairly typical of how social media giants build extensive libraries of rules. And then casually violate them at their own discretion.

Update: The latest response I got from Twitter to one of my challenges is news to me. That my “account has been suspended due to multiple or repeat violations of the Twitter Rules”. The first time they suspended me in January, they claimed it was a “mistake”. And now, I’m only given one tweet as the reason for my suspension. It is a tweet that doesn’t threaten anyone, and doesn’t have any “hateful content”. Instead, it’s a response to the hateful conduct of the enemy and their helpers, like Marvel Comics.

And yet, now Twitter claims that my suspension is based on “multiple and repeat violations”, without any references to any of these so-called “multiple and repeat violations”

That's why there's a growing movement to hold the social media corps accountable.

In response to the continued restriction and censorship of conservatives and their organizations by tech giants Facebook, Twitter, Google and YouTube, the Media Research Center (MRC) along with 18 leading conservative organizations announced Tuesday the formation of a new, permanent coalition, Conservatives Against Online Censorship.

This is an important start. And while I know many conservatives and libertarians don't want to hear it, there is a role for government here.

If you want to have a monopoly in the marketplace, then you need to respect the First Amendment. If you want to pick and choose viewpoints, then you can't have a monopoly.

The big internet companies have to be told to pick one.

They can either have a monopoly over the marketplace of ideas. In which case they have to respect freedom of speech. Or they can do what they like, but they have to give up their monopoly.