(LEX 18) — On Friday, Twitter permanently banned President Donald Trump's Twitter account just two days after five people died following protests at the U.S. Capitol Building. Later in the evening, Rep. Andy Barr tweeted that he is 'outraged' that President Trump and other conservatives were banned from the social media platform while Ayatollah of Iran, the Leader of the Nation of Islam and many officials from the Chinese Communist Party continue to operate freely on the platform.
I am outraged that an American social media company permanently banned a U.S. President and other conservatives from its platform while the Ayatollah of Iran, the Leader of the Nation of Islam and many officials from the Chinese Communist Party operate freely on their platform ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/6EdwW367ST
— Rep. Andy Barr (@RepAndyBarr) January 9, 2021
"Banning conservative Twitter accounts and recent attempts to try and cancel or remove conservative books from Amazon and other online retailers will not bring our country together," Barr said in a statement. "Instead, these efforts put us on a path towards implementing the Chinese Communist Party's social credit system, where access t online platforms, public spaces and much more hinges on expressing the acceptable political views."
On Friday, Twitter also suspended accounts they say are “solely dedicated to sharing QAnon content.”
The accounts included General Michael Flynn, Trump attorney Sidney Powell, and 8kun co-owner Ron Watkins.
In a statement to NBC and Buzzfeed News, Twitter said “the account(s) has/have been suspended in line with our policy on Coordinated Harmful Activity. We’ve been clear that we will take strong enforcement action on behavior that has the potential to lead to offline harm, and given the renewed potential for violence surrounding this type of behavior in the coming days, we will permanently suspend accounts that are solely dedicated to sharing QAnon content.”
