Twitter has not only blocked the Rev. Louis Farrakhan from posting temporarily, it has also added more rules to its hate speech policies.
The social media company announced a new update in a July 9 blog post that banned “dehumanizing language” against others “on the basis of religion.” Twitter gave examples of what kind of tweets would be removed, and stated that accounts caught posting those kinds of tweets would be suspended.
Accounts caught with tweets that break the rules but were posted before the rules were implemented would not be suspended. However, the offending tweets would be deleted from the platform.
One of the examples listed as an offense against this new rule was, “We need to exterminate the rats. The [Religious Group] are disgusting.”
Another version read, “[Religious Group] are viruses. They are making this country sick.”
The third option read, “[Religious Group] should be punished. We are not doing enough to rid us of those filthy animals.”
And the final version stated, “We don’t want more [Religious Group] in this country. Enough is enough with those MAGGOTS.”
The issue that was not addressed was, what if a religious group takes to criticizing another religious group? What if the Satanic Temple takes issue with the Catholic Church? What if the Catholic Church takes issue with the Satanic Temple? Will Twitter ban any sort of discourse on this subject?
Twitter will most likely not provide any satisfactory answers.
