‘How is this not meddling?’ Twitter bans Tommy Robinson, Sargon of Akkad campaign accounts
Campaign accounts of two British candidates for the European Parliament, Tommy Robinson and Carl Benjamin, have been deleted by Twitter, prompting outcries of election meddling with less than a month before the vote.
Robinson and Benjamin – better known under his YouTube handle ‘Sargon of Akkad’ – are running in the May 23 election, which the UK will have to participate in due to the ongoing Brexit delays. Benjamin is a member of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), while Robinson announced his independent candidacy on Thursday.
Both of them have had personal accounts purged from Twitter a while ago, but the accounts terminated on Friday were run by their campaign staff, and not them personally.
“We are investigating why, but strongly suspect this is a deliberate act of political censorship to deny a candidate his voice in a crucial election,” Benjamin’s campaign staffer Michael De La Broc said, adding the campaign will complain to the election authorities and maybe even seek restitution in court for “political interference by a foreign entity in our elections.”
UKIP has also declared the ban “election interference” and vowed to “get to the bottom” of the issue.
Benjamin has come under attack by the media and establishment politicians, who have accused him of “racist” speech. The YouTuber maintains he fights for free speech and against political correctness.
Mainstream media have described Robinson as a “far-right activist” and accused him of “Islamophobia.” He was banned from Facebook and Instagram in February over alleged “hate speech.”
British Muslim organization Tell MAMA has claimed credit for reporting Robinson’s campaign account to Twitter, saying it’s using the candidacy to circumvent his personal ban.
The purge of MEP candidates comes just three days after Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey went to the White House and met with US President Donald Trump to address complaints about “shadowbanning” and suspensions disproportionately targeting conservative voices on the social media platform.
While Twitter and other social media platforms have defended censorship on grounds that they are companies and not the government, last year a federal judge in the US ruled that Twitter is a “designated public forum,” and that Trump is not allowed to block people from his personal account on grounds of political speech.
Far-Left Extremists Using Patreon to Fund and Promote ‘Guerrilla Cells’ and Carry Out ‘Attacks’
December 13, 2018
While Patreon has been hyper-vigilant in their banning of right-wing creators for wrongthink — they are ignoring far-left extremists who are openly using the service to fund and promote the formation of “guerrilla cells” to carry out politically motivated “attacks.”
A new report from Far-Left Watch found multiple Patreon users that are raising thousands of dollars a month while violating the service’s Community Guidelines.
Patreon has made headlines multiple times for banning right-wing or centrist users such as Sargon of Akkad, Laura Loomer, and Lauren Southern for their views — none of which promoted violence.
The FLW report focused on militant leftist accounts that are blatantly advocating for political violence.
The first account Far-Left Watch focused on was Revolutionary Left Radio.
“This far-left podcast currently has over 700 Patrons who donate monthly to their show, which is hosted by Brett Anderson aka ‘Breht Oshea’. Brett has a criminal record and is a vocal proponent of armed confrontation with the state and with people who he calls ‘reactionaries’ (ie. people who oppose Communism),” FLW reports.
In tweets, Revolutionary Left Radio declares that they “like my working class like I like my antifascism: armed and militant.”
FLW found that they also “talk about putting every fascist (ie. people who oppose their far-left ideology) “against the wall”, which is a reference to execution.”
“Here, Brett appears to be supporting the work of the New People’s Army (NPA), which is a State Department designated Foreign Terrorist Organization that is responsible for the death of at least 158 innocent civilians,” the report continued.
Anderson has also called for his followers to use tactics like sabotage and asymmetrical warfare.
Far Left Watch also pointed out the Patreon of The Guillotine Podcast.
“This far-left podcast currently has over 350 Patrons who donate monthly to their show, which is hosted by an extremist who uses the moniker ‘Dr. Bones’ as well as Brett Anderson. ‘Dr. Bones’, who is also a regular guest on Revolutionary Left Radio, is a self described ‘Egoist-Communist, Insurrectionist, and an Illegalist’. He also has his own dedicated Patreon page with that he has been using in order to ‘inspire insurrection’. After we brought this to the attention of Patreon and Patreon support, ‘Dr. Bones’ removed that language from his page as well as language where he discussed firing “massive .44 rounds at the heads of politicians and capitalists”. Not to worry, we archived it before he made the changes,” FLW reports.
Tweets from the host of this show include, “this is why liberals get the wall too.” They also promoted a pamphlet left at the scene of several anarchist bombings to inspire his followers.
Need some inspiration? ITT “Plain Words,” a phamphlet found at the site of several Anarchist bombings in an attempt to kill the rich. pic.twitter.com/ku3RWBJaUN
— 🔫🏴Dr. Bones🏴💣 (@Ole_Bonsey) July 20, 2017
Seen some Anarchists getting troubled by Tankies again.
Reminder: in the event of an actual insurrection, riot, or revolt, you do not have to out-debate your political opponents.
You have to outshoot them.
Internet is for propaganda only.
The street decides everything else. pic.twitter.com/lpPyPF7VHH— 🔫🏴Dr. Bones🏴💣 (@Ole_Bonsey) April 27, 2018
If those tweets weren’t blatant enough, the host also declared in all-caps that his followers should “threaten the rich with violence.”
LISTEN TO. ME THREATEN RICH PEOPLE WITH VIOLENCE https://t.co/nogwi1xS3R
— 🔫🏴Dr. Bones🏴💣 (@Ole_Bonsey) July 7, 2018
“Here, The Guillotine Podcast encourage their followers to start building “clandestine cells” and provide instructions on exactly how they can do that,” FLW reports.
They have also praised the work of the Informal Anarchist Federation (IAF), which is a Foreign Terrorist Organization responsible for numerous bombing campaigns throughout Italy.
“I think we have pretty thoroughly demonstrated that the ‘Manifest Observable Behavior’ of these three far-left Patreon accounts are in violation of Patreon’s Community Guidelines. Please help us #DefundAntifa and report these violations to Patreon’s Trust and Safety Team. You can also contact their Trust & Safety team directly at Guidelines@patreon.com,” FLW reports.
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