Twitter stocks dropped Thursday in the wake of new transgender censorship policies and pressure over banned accounts — including a boycott by Fox News. The stock saw a tiny boost in its share price to finish out the week.
Bloomberg attributed the sharp eight-point downturn, its biggest one-day percentage drop in more than a month, to conservative boycotts.
Fox News itself has abstained from tweeting on its primary account since Nov. 8, in silent protest. Fox was reportedly angry over the incident where left-wing activists gathered to demonstrate at host Tucker Carlson’s home. The mob chanted “Racist Scumbag, leave town!” and wrote that he was “not safe” on social media. His wife who was home alone at the time thought that her home was being invaded when she heard pounding at the door.
According to Politico, “Fox News was frustrated by Twitter ‘fostering a dangerous climate’ and not responding quickly enough to requests that it remove tweets targeting Carlson, Mediaite reported.”
Similarly, activist Laura Loomer protested her own Twitter ban by handcuffing herself to Twitter’s entrance while wearing a Star of David. She appeared there to protest and expose Twitter’s double standards where they ban conservative speech while enabling anti-Semitism and general left-wing hatred.
She contrasted the fact that she was banned for tweeting concerns over Rep. Ilhan Omar’s religious beliefs, anti-Semitic Nation of Islam leader Rev. Louis Farrakhan’s tweets comparing Jewish people to termites are allowed on the website.
Libertarian blogger Glenn Reynolds, known as Instapundit on Twitter, deactivated his own Twitter account in protest after conservative veteran and commentator Jesse Kelly was banned. LifeNews noted the curious circumstances that followed. “A congressional aide reported that the House Energy and Commerce Committee was looking into Twitter, and a few hours later, Senator-elect Josh Hawley (R-MO) called for a congressional investigation, it wrote”
Kelly’s account was promptly reinstated without explanation. LifeNews added that “the other perma-ban, journalist Laura Loomer, still stands. Twitter has also put into place a policy where people who misgender transpeople will be banned as well.” The Daily Wire’s Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro has been tweeting biology textbook pages in response, daring the tech giant to declare objective science as “hate speech.”
Social media censorship has been an issue that summarizes America’s shifting politics. Social media has become America’s public square of political debate, yet this public arena for the battle of ideas is provided by private companies. This has pitted usually free market conservatives against big corporations staffed by liberals. Usually pro-Big Government liberals have defended these companies and their right to deny service to groups and opinions they dislike.
