Seth Dillon, the CEO of conservative Christian parody news site The Babylon Bee, has chastised Twitter for removing the site’s account. The news platform’s Twitter account was frozen over a message in which the United States Assistant Secretary of Health, Dr. Rachel Levine, who identifies as a woman, was named “Man of the Year” for 2022.
Dillon posted the suspension notice from Twitter over the conservative news portal’s reportedly provocative message on Monday, March 22. In the tweet, Dillon included an image of the warning and stated that Twitter would not reinstate the account unless the content was removed. In a second tweet, the CEO stated that the company will not censor its message by deleting it. He penned,
“We’re not going to delete anything. Truth isn’t a kind of hate speech. If stating the truth comes at the penalty of losing our Twitter account, then be it.”
What was the reason behind The Babylon Bee’s Twitter ban?
According to a copy of the account suspension letter supplied by Seth Dillon, Twitter banned the news site’s account due to “hateful behavior.” “Hateful conduct,” according to Twitter’s support website, refers to tweets or material uploaded on the network that promotes violence or incites direct assaults or threats against persons.
Any assault or act of violence against anyone “on the grounds of race, ethnicity, national origin, caste, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, handicap, or serious sickness” is covered under the platform’s “hateful behavior” section.
While The Babylon Bee’s post and its consequences are being contested, Twitter has yet to specify which section of the “hateful behavior policy” the tweet infringed on. Many of Seth Dillon’s platform’s followers have responded in favor of his tweets since then.
Part of the misunderstanding stems from the fact that the initial tweet referred Dr. Rachel Levine as a guy. Because the phrase in question isn’t really a slur,’ it’s unclear how the social media behemoth noted violations of rules.
The Babylon Bee’s reaction to the uproar
The debate erupted when the news portal published a story on Dr. Rachel Levine, who transitioned from a “biological guy” to a woman in 2011. The site released a story headlined “The Babylon Bee’s Man Of The Year Is Rachel Levine” on March 15.
They referred to Levine as a male in the article and used the pronouns ‘He/Him’ for her, claiming that her self-identification as a woman “had no influence on the reality.” Furthermore, Seth Dillon argued in his tweet,
“They won’t let you come to the conclusion that a person’s maleness qualifies him as a guy. You must validate Rachel’s self-identification as a woman.”
Dillon has stated that many Twitter users have mass-reported his personal account after the matter became public. However, Twitter has emphasized that the reported postings do not violate its regulations and, as a result, will not be removed.
