Twitter locks Catholic publication’s account for ‘hateful conduct’

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Catholic World Report was locked out Jan. 24 for using the term ‘biological male’ to describe Biden appointee — 

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 29, 2021 /Christian Newswire/ — On Sunday, Jan. 24, Catholic World Report received a notice from Twitter, alerting it that its account had been suspended for hateful conduct, and unless it removed the offending tweet, its account would remain suspended.

The tweet in question was a link to this Catholic News Agency news brief, written by Matt Hadro, and posted on CWR on Jan. 19, 2021. The tweet stated:

“Biden plans to nominate Dr. Rachel Levine, a biological man identifying as a transgender woman who has served as Pennsylvania’s health secretary since 2017, to be HHS Assistant Secretary for Health. Levine is also a supporter of the contraceptive mandate.”

Catholic World Report appealed the decision and Twitter has denied their appeal. Twitter considers the tweet hate speech, and unless Catholic World Report removes the tweet, its account will be suspended.

Carl Olson, editor of Catholic World Report, said: “It seems evident that Twitter’s focus is the description of Levine as ‘a biological man identifying as a transgender woman.’ Since Levine is ‘transgendered,’ it’s curious as to why Twitter would think it harmful or hateful to note what Levine is ‘trans-gendering’ from or to. Twitter is clearly indicating that unless CWR and other outlets jump through arbitrary and constantly-changing rhetorical and ideological hoops, they cannot use Twitter. Just as bad, Twitter is implicitly making CWR admit to hateful or bigoted language, even though such was never the case. Not only is such an approach subjective in nature, it is an overtly biased, unfair and discriminatory approach that both stifles free speech and undermines CWR’s right to report on current events.”

To read the entire account and view the exchange between Twitter and Catholic World Report, visit https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2021/01/28/twitter-freezes-cwrs-account-over-news-story-on-transgendered-dr-rachel-levine/.

Catholic World Report is a publication of Ignatius Press, founded by Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J., thirty years ago. SOURCE — Carmel Communications