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Project Veritas was banned from Twitter in February, and founder James O’Keefe was banned on April 15. He lost his 900,000+ follower account soon after posting videos of a CNN producer admitting to propagandistic bias in favor of the Democratic Party. Project Veritas responded to the ban of O’Keefe’s account by suing Twitter: “I am suing Twitter for defamation because they said I, James O’Keefe, ‘operated fake accounts.’ This is false, this is defamatory, and they will pay. Section 230 may have protected them before, but it will not protect them from me.” O’Keefe has now released a music video to celebrate, which is available on YouTube or in Times Square.

Twitter has made a practice of mass-banning accounts that it determines are fake follower accounts, spamming accounts, and bot accounts—resulting in sudden and dramatic drops in follower numbers for some high profile users. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s own account lost 200,000+ followers in one such purge. These accounts are purportedly distinguished from accounts with pseudonyms used by real people for reasons other than inflating follower counts. The more legitimate uses for alternate accounts are allowed, even from the same phone number; Twitter even provides a way for a user to switch between multiple accounts. Valid reasons for multiple accounts include privacy, parents who share a computer with a child, and keeping business accounts separate from personal accounts.

When Twitter’s ‘Trust and Safety’ department suspends or bans its users, the offending tweet is not always specified. Controversially banned accounts from Twitter include; Courtney Love, Milo Yiannopoulos, Roger Stone, Alex Jones, Laura Loomer, and Steve Bannon. As well as Lin Wood, Michael Flynn, Sydney Powell, Jim Watkins, Ron Watkins, and UncoverDC’s Editor-in-Chief, Tracy Beanz. Even Dorsey was temporarily banned in 2016, in an incident he says was due to an “internal mistake.” Facebook’s list of prominent banned accounts is similar.

Twitter made one controversial and newsworthy ban in 2017 of Rose McGowan, who said she was suspended for 12 hours after Tweeting her claims of Harvey Weinstein’s sexual misconduct—Twitter said it was because she tweeted a private phone number. None have been discussed more than when Twitter banned Donald Trump’s personal account and the official @POTUS handle while he was the sitting President of the United States, following his January 6 Save America Rally at the Capitol. Twitter then banned 70,000 Qanon-related accounts on January 11 and Mike Lindell on January 25.

Twitter cited “Glorification of Violence” guidelines after Trump had given a speech in which he stated, “peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard today.” He had also tweeted, “I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order—respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you!” and “Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!” Facebook, Reddit, and Instagram also banned Trump’s accounts on their platforms.

Each social media platform has its own policies for banning users, suspending accounts, deleting, editing, and algorithmically manipulating post order, with critics calling for more explanation, transparency, and consistency. Intertwined is the question of where the courts will place liability for damages found to be caused by content posted on the platforms, which is now defined by Section 230, a law that is part of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 (DCA). Some call for its repeal, such as Mike Cernovich, while some argue that the Big-Tech cooperative monopolizes the market and that government has authority beyond Section 230 to regulate.

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