Staff Reports
Twitter has removed over 5,000 tweets and retweets promoting a “Trans Day of Vengeance” event following last week’s devastating shooting at a Nashville public school. The social media site’s vice president of trust and safety, Ella G. Irwin, announced the move in a tweet saying, “We do support tweets that incite violence irrespective of who posts them. ‘Vengeance’ does not imply peaceful protest. Organising or supporting peaceful protests is okay.”
Twitter Cracks Down On Tweets Promoting ‘Trans Day Of Vengeance’ In Wake Of Nashville Shooting https://t.co/pdZuoXvblG
— US Burning (@UsBurning) March 28, 2023
The controversial event was planned by the Trans Radical Activist Network and included firearms training as well as protest activities in front of the Supreme Court. Shockingly, it was scheduled just days before Audrey Hale, a 28-year-old transgender person, opened fire on a public school in Nashville, killing six people and injuring many others.
Correct. We had to automatically sweep our platform and remove >5000 tweets /retweets of this poster. We do not support tweets that incite violence irrespective of who posts them. "Vengeance" does not imply peaceful protest. Organizing or support for peaceful protests is ok
— Ella Irwin (@ellagirwin) March 28, 2023
Yesterday I tweeted the below and attached the graphic for the "Trans Day of Vengeance"
Twitter Locked me out for inciting violence and denied my appeal unless I deleted the tweet.
The graphic is still all over leftist Twitter.
Any help here?@elonmusk @TwitterSupport pic.twitter.com/lBGtGqf4Uw— Jason Robertson (@JRobFromMN) March 28, 2023
Many of the tweets removed by Twitter criticised the “Trans Day of Vengeance” event. One such tweet, which precipitated a Twitter lockout was by Jason Robertson, co-founder of The American Tribune. Robertson claimed he had been “denied my appeal unless I deleted the tweet”.
Twitter’s crackdown on incitement to violence from the far-left is to be welcomed. Its action comes as the US is in the throes of a culture war being fought on the web as much as on the streets. Free speech is a cherished right, but when events are organised that go beyond peaceful protest, it is incumbent on social media platforms such as Twitter to take swift and decisive action to prevent further incitement to violence.
