Russia Ukraine Conflict and Twitter censorship
The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has been brutal, many Ukrainian citizens have suffered tremendously because of the war. Sadly, social media in an effort to crack down on war dis-information has led to a silencing of opinions that are not in lock step with the mainstream media narrative. Misinformation can be dangerous and must be addressed, but completely silencing opposing voices is not the job of twitter yet that has been their stance since the outbreak of the Russia/ Ukraine conflict.
On March 9th I sent out a video tweet of a news conference from Russian Television, in the video a Russian spokesperson addressed the fact that the United States admitted having biolabs in Ukraine. The Russian spokesperson in the video cited Under Secretary Victoria Nuland as conformation of the bio-labs.
On March 7th Secretary Victoria Nuland confirmed the existence of biolabs in Ukraine when Senator Marco Rubio asked her if the labs were in fact real.
The video I tweeted was the Russian response where Russia asked the United States why the labs were in Ukraine.
I tweeted the video with quotation marks to show the statement in my tweet came from the speaker in the video not me. The video was commented on by Congressman Matt Gaetz which caused my tweet to go somewhat viral, over 50,000 views in an hour.
Matt Gaetz is an honest voice and social media would love to silence him, yet he does not backdown.
The exchange with Matt Gaetz and AbrhamStein8 on twitter below
The tweet appeared on 2 news station broadcasts, then everything changed; later that evening I discovered I was locked out of my twitter account.
Twitter asked me to delete the tweet, or I would not be allowed to tweet from my account, I also had to admit that the tweet violated twitter rules. They never specified what rule was violated. My account is active on the site, but I am not allowed to tweet unless I admit I violated their rules and delete the tweet.
There is an option to appeal, but it is a dark process of waiting for a response that some say takes months. Twitter is known for letting appeals sit for weeks or even months without a decision.
See photo.
The tweet never mentions weapons in Ukraine, the tweet only confirmed what United States Under Secretary Victoria Nuland confirmed, which is the existence of bio labs in Ukraine.
We are all outraged by the violence in Ukraine, the Russian air assaults have been particularly devastating, but removing every Russian voice and their videos is censorship.
As of today (day 5) my account has the same message “Thanks for your appeal, we will respond back as soon as possible”. I could easily delete the tweet, end the appeal and go back on twitter, but that would be like pleading guilty to a crime you did not commit.
Twitter is becoming a state sponsored site, a platform where only certain opinions are permitted; hopeful they will one day return to a free speech platform.
Update: Last night former Congress member Tulsi Gabbard revealed 100% proof of the existence of biolabs in Ukraine. In her response to Senator Mitt Romney (on twitter) she laid out the undeniable facts.
Her tweet has not been removed, the only difference between my tweet and Gabbard tweet is the fact that a Russia person issued the statement. Both statements are identical.
Watch.
