As we descend farther down the rabbit hole that appears to be leading right back to 1933 Germany, Twitter has given us another lump of sh*t to swallow by not only reactivating numerous prominent White Nationalist (NAZI) accounts, but going so far as verifying them with that cute little blue check mark. Yes, they are officially verified.
These are men who do nothing but spew vile, racist, ethnocentric hate speech touting racial segregation, white power and superiority while at the same time degrading all other races and religions through the usage of (((echos))), vile tweets and imagery. Yes, this is totally ok with Jack and the crew at Twitter, though.
Just some backstory: there was an incredible uptick of racist and antisemitic tweeting going on following Donald Trump's rise to power. To combat that, Twitter instituted a stricter policy regarding hate speech that does not allow: “promot[ing] violence against or directly attack[ing] or threaten[ing] other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or disease.”
Perfect. So men that run organizations that promote violence (ovens) and threaten other people on the basis of race, etc...should be banned, right? Apparently not.
Milo Yiannopoulos had his account shut down way back in July after attacking actress Leslie Jones (SNL, Ghostbusters, etc). His twitter troll army went berserk. Then Ricky Vaughn (twitter troll who used Charlie Sheen as his avi) had his account shut down too leading to a mass exodus to gab. Fine. Twitter was a happier place.
The Washington Post reported that by mid November numerous other White Nationalist (NAZI) accounts were shut down, including the face of the White Nationalist (NAZI) movement, Richard Spencer. Fresh faced with a tight "fashy" haircut, Spencer worships Hitler. Spencer is also the President of the National Policy Institute, whose mission statement says it aims “to elevate the consciousness of whites, ensure our biological and cultural continuity, and protect our civil rights. The institute ... will study the consequences of the ongoing influx that non-Western populations pose to our national identity.” That sounds a whole lot less like "National Policy" and a whole lot like "White Nationalist (NAZI) Propaganda."
But the joy was shortlived. His account was reactivated on December 10th. So why was Spencer's account deactivated in the first place? Little Green Footballs reports that it wasn't for spreading White Nationalist (NAZI) propaganda after all.
According to Twitter, it was because he had too many accounts.
A Twitter spokesperson told Vox that Spencer was suspended not for hate speech or for inciting harm, but for having too many accounts: “Our rules explicitly prohibit creating multiple accounts with overlapping uses. When we temporarily suspend multiple accounts for this violation, the account owner can designate one account for reinstatement.”
Down the rabbit hole we go. Twitter is verifying White Nationalist (NAZI) accounts. Meanwhile, our writers keep getting denied verification. Hello, Twitter?
