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After the initial blush of excitement with Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter in October 2022, the bloom is officially off the rose. At first, conservative users saw the release of punishing algorithms and ridiculous bans and even saw credible and steady increases in engagement and follower counts. Sadly, this did not last long. It is now business as usual again, the Twitter Files drops notwithstanding.
Maybe the dissemination of this information, along with his other high-powered corporations like Tesla and SpaceX, is what is occupying Elon Musk’s time these days. Whatever the case, it is obvious that any cleanup of Twitter has since fallen by the wayside. This means accounts like mine, my colleagues, and other conservative voices continue to suffer under shadowbans, limited engagement, and spurious locks and suspensions. Even worse are the random deletion and cancelation of accounts, like what happened with pro-life activist Lila Rose.
Her organization Live Action reported:
At approximately 8:15 p.m. EST on March 3, the Twitter account @LilaGraceRose was suddenly deactivated, with Rose receiving no notice of any violations or suspension either prior to the account’s removal or after.
BREAKING:
Our president @LilaGraceRose‘s account has just been suspended & apparently deleted without explanation or notification.
What’s going on @TwitterSupport @Twitter ?
RT! pic.twitter.com/llevyipVKl
— Live Action (@LiveAction) March 5, 2023
Live Action’s team contacted Twitter support at 9 p.m., but as of the publication of this article, has received no response.
The LiveAction Twitter page delivered a message from Lila Rose, addressing the abrupt suspension:
A personal message from Live Action Founder and President Lila Rose.
RT! pic.twitter.com/LUNfGk2WCK
— Live Action (@LiveAction) March 5, 2023
It is interesting that this happened the day after Attorney General Merrick Garland was roasted by Sens. Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz about his overreach in targeting pro-life persons for praying in front of abortion clinics, while ignoring the violent and egregious attacks by left-wing groups on pro-life centers and churches. Rose even tweeted about this testimony, which may well have triggered the algorithm that monitors speech. We know from the Twitter Files that such monitoring does exist, and despite the executives and staff who oversaw this fascist wing of the operation since being fired, there is no evidence that the machinations built into the system have been eradicated.
The FBI, which works under the direction of Attorney General Merrick Garland, came to the home of Mark and Ryan-Marie Houk with 20 heavily armed SWAT officers to arrest Mark for his pro-life advocacy.
Thank you, Senator @HawleyMO, for demanding answers. pic.twitter.com/D0OkSEqRaw
— Lila Rose (@LilaGraceRose) March 2, 2023
Rose’s account cancellation could also have been the result of a campaign to target Rose’s account with hateful conduct reports, as this Alabama Reproductive Rights account appears to delight in doing.
Hark, it’s Lila Rose!
The first was from May 2022. The second was from January 2023. pic.twitter.com/2PrHKB15s9— Alabama Reproductive Rights Advocates (@ALReproRightsAd) March 5, 2023
Whatever the reason, a day after Rose’s personal Twitter account was wiped out without explanation, the account was restored, also without explanation.
I’m back! Thank you so much to everyone who tweeted @Twitter @elonmusk! Still no communication from Twitter about why my account was suspended and deleted or now reinstated but really grateful for everyone who spoke out. ❤️
— Lila Rose (@LilaGraceRose) March 5, 2023
Did they give you an explanation? Likely a concerted bot mass reporting effort.
— JoMa 🇩🇴 (@joma_gc) March 5, 2023
We at RedState are no strangers to bias and blacklisting. Many of us are still being shadowbanned on Twitter. This is where people cannot see what we tweet or the writing we disseminate. No eyes, no retweets. No retweets, no visibility, traction, or clicks. Limited clicks and engagement, limited funds. It’s a defeating cycle, as is its intent. To use an old-fashioned analogy, it’s like the paper boy throwing the paper on the porch, and having some invisible hand throw it back at him. Nothing is getting delivered, therefore, nothing is getting seen. Yes, this is how we get paid, so ultimately it has affected everyone’s bottom line. This is also why our VIP membership is so critical, as my colleague Brad Slager outlined so beautifully here.
Elon Musk must address these ghosts in Twitter’s machine. If Musk is truly interested in making Twitter a free speech platform, and making it a platform that brings in revenue, he needs to make this a priority. No one is going to waste time with engagement that never comes or spend money on a platform that continues to cut it off at the knees.
When will Musk finally exorcise these ghosts? Only time will tell, but for many of us, it needs to be sooner, rather than later.
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