It’s a month later, and the Babylon Bee isn’t backing down from Twitter censorship. Last month, the Babylon Bee, a satirical news website, was banned from Twitter for declaring transgendered federal employee Rachel Levine as “Man of the Year”. Twitter said it would unban Babylon Bee and unlock their account if they deleted the tweet.
“Levine is the U.S. assistant secretary for health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where he serves proudly as the first man in that position to dress like a western cultural stereotype of a woman. He is also an admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. What a boss,” the Bee reported.
To this day, Seth Dillon, the CEO of the Babylon Bee has refused to comply with the removal request.
“We received a notice from Twitter last night informing us that we’ve been locked out of our account for engaging in “hateful conduct.” Our crime? We jokingly selected Rachel Levine — a prominent transgender government official — as our pick for “Man of the Year.” (This was our satirical response to Levine’s being named one of the top women of the year by USA Today. Yes, that actually happened.),” Dillon said. “We’ve been told our account will be restored in 12 hours, but the countdown won’t begin until we delete the tweet that violates Twitter Rules.”
“The account you referenced has been temporarily locked for violating our hateful conduct policy. The account owner is required to delete the violative Tweet before regaining access to their account,” Twitter said.
“Twitter could, of course, delete the tweet themselves. But they won’t. It’s not enough for them to just wipe it out. They want us to bend the knee and admit that we engaged in hateful conduct,” Dillon added. “I can promise you that’s not happening. Truth is not hate speech. If the cost of telling the truth is the loss of our Twitter account, then so be it. We won’t compromise the truth just to keep our account.”
Dillon told people being wrongfully banned by Twitter to never commit to censoring themselves.
“Insist that 2 and 2 make 4 even if Twitter tries to compel you to say otherwise. Make them ban tens of millions of us if they want to remove objective truth from their platform.” Dillon said. “Second, become a premium subscriber. You’ll get some great perks, but, more importantly, you’ll provide us with the critical financial support we need to keep going in the face of ongoing censorship. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: The greatest accomplishment on Twitter isn’t going viral, or building a huge following, or getting verified — it’s getting banned for saying something true. We’re proud to stand up for the truth, and we’re deeply appreciative of each and every one of you who commits to standing with us.”