Trump Tweets Support For Conservative Voices Banned From Twitter
"Twitter should let the banned Conservative Voices back onto their platform, without restriction," Trump wrote on the very same social media platform. "It’s called Freedom of Speech, remember. You are making a Giant Mistake!"
Twitter banned some high-profile conservative commentators in May. Actor James Woods, who has 2.1 million followers, was banned by Twitter in April. Trump responded then, too: "How can it be possible that James Woods (and many others), a strong but responsible Conservative Voice, is banned from Twitter?" he wrote in early May. "Social Media & Fake News Media, together with their partner, the Democrat Party, have no idea the problems they are causing for themselves. VERY UNFAIR!"
Twitter also banned conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, activist Laura Loomer and Milo Yiannopoulos.
In May, Trump also tweeted support for Diamond and Silk, whose real names are Lynnette Hardaway and Rochelle Richardson and have been longtime supporters of the president.
"The wonderful Diamond and Silk have been treated so horribly by Facebook," the president wrote. "They work so hard and what has been done to them is very sad — and we’re looking into. It’s getting worse and worse for Conservatives on social media!"
Trump’s comments on Sunday came amid talk that his re-election campaign is considering creating a profile on a new conservative social media platform called Parler.
Politico reported that the president’s social media manager, Brad Parscale, is "aware" of the new site and is "checking [it] out."
Parler was created in 2018 after the founders became "exhausted with a lack of transparency in big tech, ideological censorship and privacy abuse," they wrote on the site. It is similar to Twitter but has only 100,000 users; Twitter has more than 325 million users.
Trump has repeatedly bashed social media platforms for censoring conservatives. "No wonder Congress wants to get involved — and they should. Must be more, and fairer, companies to get out the WORD!" Trump tweeted in April.
"When will the Radical Left Wing Media apologize to me for knowingly getting the Russia Collusion Delusion story so wrong?" Trump wrote in May. "The real story is about to happen! Why is @nytimes, @washingtonpost, @CNN, @MSNBC allowed to be on Twitter & Facebook. Much of what they do is FAKE NEWS!"
Trump in 2018 also pointed out that Twitter allegedly "shadow bans" conservatives, restricting the visibility of their tweets in search results.
"Twitter 'SHADOW BANNING' prominent Republicans. Not good. We will look into this discriminatory and illegal practice at once! Many complaints," he wrote in July.
Twitter “SHADOW BANNING” prominent Republicans. Not good. We will look into this discriminatory and illegal practice at once! Many complaints.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2018
