Twitter is facing the unforeseen consequence of banning a right-wing troll from its platform.
Laura Loomer, a known conspiracy theorist, handcuffed herself to the front door of Twitter’s New York headquarters on Thursday. The stunt was in protest of her ban from the platform last week.
Once handcuffed to the company's doors, Loomer used a supporter's Periscope account to broadcast her protest online. She then shouted unsubstantiated claims about the suppression of conservative viewpoints on Twitter using a megaphone.
Tweet may have been deleted
Loomer was permanently banned from Twitter just one day before Thanksgiving for a tweet attacking U.S. House representative-elect, Ilhan Omar.
In the tweet that got her banned, Loomer hurled Islamophobic epithets toward Omar -- a violation of Twitter’s terms of services.
This isn’t the first time Laura Loomer has attempted to draw attention to her trollish plights against Twitter and other tech companies.
The conspiracy theorist has been fighting with Twitter for a full year, sparked by the removal of her verified blue checkmark from her profile in November 2017.
When Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey testified to Congress about the company’s alleged suppression of conservative viewpoints, Loomer also interrupted the hearing, demanding her verification status be returned to her.
Social media platforms have long struggled with harassment and how to deal with its most abusive users. Arguably, no other platform has grappled with this issue more than Twitter.
The San Francisco-based social media platform has taken several steps to address abuse and cyberbullying on its site. This has led to a number of prominent right-wing figures being outright banned on the platform.
Right wing provocateurs Alex Jones and his conspiracy website InfoWars, extremist Gavin McInnes and his group Proud Boys, and Milo Yiannopoulos have all been kicked off Twitter for breaking the platform’s terms of service.
While Twitter bans have often been successful in squelching these figures, no other figure has gone as far as Laura Loomer in their attention-seeking behavior.
The fact remains that right-wing figures aren’t being banned from Twitter and other online platforms for being conservative. It just so happens that a significant number of right-wing users are not abiding by the terms of service set by the companies that run these internet services.
Regardless, in addition to the handcuffing stunt, Loomer announced today that she was suing Twitter for “discriminating against conservatives.”
Following her latest stunt, it certainly seems like the door is closed for an eventual return to Twitter.
Topics Social Media Twitter Politics
