Twitter has refused to censor a picture of comedian Kathy Griffin holding the bloody head of President Donald Trump. Griffin posted the i...
Twitter has refused to censor a picture of comedian Kathy Griffin holding the bloody head of President Donald Trump. Griffin posted the image on the social media platform minutes after Trump declared victory in the presidential elections the morning of Nov. 4. ZeroHedge reported that Twitter had not censored the photo nine hours after it was posted, and had received more than 10,000 retweets and more than 48,000 likes.
However, the picture Griffin posted violated multiple stipulations of Twitter’s Sensitive Media Policy – including sections on “graphic violence” and “gratuitous gore.” The policy’s overview clearly states: “You may not post media that is excessively gory.” Despite the policy in place, the social media site has not placed any filter or warning on Griffin’s image.
This was the second time the comedian posted the gruesome image on Twitter, having first done so in 2017 to express her hatred against the incumbent president. A mainstream media network terminated Griffin as a result of her stunt.
In addition, the First Couple also slammed Griffin’s picture. First Lady Melania Trump said in a statement that the photo was “simply wrong” and “[made] one wonder about the mental health of the person who did it.” Meanwhile, the president called the image “sick” and said the comedian “should be ashamed of herself.”
On the other hand, Twitter blocked the New York Post’s articles on Hunter Biden
Meanwhile, conservative-leaning publication New York Post lost access to its Twitter account following its stories on Hunter Biden’s emails to Ukrainian businessmen and Chinese executives published in October.
A Twitter spokesperson told the Post in a statement that its articles on Hunter Biden’s emails violated the platform’s Hacked Materials Policy, and the tabloid would only regain access to its account if it deletes six tweets on the stories. “While we’ve updated the policy, we don’t change enforcement retroactively. You will still need to delete the tweets to regain access to your account,” the statement added.
The Post also faced censorship from Facebook because of its two articles. Andy Stone, the social media site’s communications director, tweeted Oct. 14 that Facebook will “reduce the stories’ distribution on [its] platform.” He added that the tabloid’s articles are “eligible to be fact-checked by Facebook’s third-party fact-checking partners.”
Big Tech blocks conservatives from posting, while liberals get a free pass on its platforms
Conservatives on Facebook and Twitter have been voicing out concerns of unfair and biased censorship by the social media platforms. While articles exposing potential corruption such as that of the Post are arbitrarily blocked, images expressing anti-Trump sentiment – such as the one Griffin posted – appear to be exempt from the rules.
Several lawmakers have publicly slammed Big Tech for its anti-conservative bias – with Republican senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Josh Hawley (R-MO) foremost among them.
During an Oct. 28 Senate hearing, Cruz slammed Twitter’s “egregious” conduct and focused on its censorship of the Post’s Hunter Biden articles. Three Big Tech CEOs — Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter’s Jack Dorsey and Google’s Sundar Pichai — testified before lawmakers at the inquiry. The Texas senator set his sights on Dorsey: “Who elected you [and] put you in charge of what the media is allowed to report and what the American people are allowed to hear?”
Meanwhile, Hawley responded to Stone’s tweet by asking: “I want to know on what grounds you are actively censoring a news report about potentially illegal corruption [by Joe Biden.]” Hawley then posted a formal letter addressed to Zuckerberg ordering the Facebook CEO to explain the platform’s “decision to censor the sourced reporting of the Post.” The senator ended by asking: “Did [the] Biden campaign ask you to do so?”
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