Twitter has, once again, bowed to pressure from the left to silence conservatives.
House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) reportedly removed a video from his Twitter account on Sunday after the platform flagged the video as having been “manipulated.”
The video featured Ady Barkan, a man with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), in an interview with Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden discussing police reform. Barkan speaks with the help of computerized voice assistance.
In the original video, Biden discussed his plans for police reform, and Barkin asked “But do we agree that we can redirect some of the funding?” Biden then replied, “Yes, absolutely.”
The Scalise video had reportedly added the words “for police” to the end of Barkin’s question, according to Fox News. As Fox reported, “The context of the original exchange made clear that Barkan was talking about redirecting police funding, but the edit drew strong criticism nevertheless.”
Scalise’s move drew criticism from several on the left, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Joe Biden, and Barkin himself, who all called for Scalise to remove the video. Twitter allegedly flagged the video for violating its “synthetic and manipulated media” policy. Scalise removed the video on Sunday evening.
“We paired the police portion with Barkan’s final question for clarity because we couldn’t include an entire 3-minute clip in a one minute montage. We believe Biden’s position and answer is clear regardless,” said Scalise spokesperson Laura Fine in a statement to The Washington Post.
Scalise has been a particularly vocal supporter of law enforcement, particularly since he was shot while practicing for the Congressional baseball game in 2017. He said in a speech at the Republican National Convention last week that “I wouldn’t be here without the bravery and heroism of the men and women in law enforcement who saved my life.”
Conservatives are under attack. Contact the FCC at 1-888-225-5322 and/or via the MRC’s FCC contact form to give your take on the petition filed by the Department of Commerce regarding Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996. Demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on “hate speech” and equal footing for conservatives.
