Earlier today, we reported about the strange suspensions that had been building up, specifically of Dom Lucre, ‘Ranty Amy Curtis,’ ‘Bumpstock Barbie’ and The Virginia Project. We are happy to say two of those accounts have been restored: Dom Lucre and Bumpstock Barbie.
Okay, we admit that maybe we had nothing to do with it, contrary to the title of this piece. Dom Lucre is popular enough that his fans might have gotten Elon Musk's attention regardless of our help, and that in turn might have shaken some things loose at Twitter that paved the way for Barbie. So, this might be a good time to try to appeal a suspension if you have failed in the past.
Still, this author has once been unjustly suspended pre-Musk and we know how much that stinks. We hope this post helps some people out in a small way, if only to let them know they aren’t alone.
For Lucre, it started with a Krassenstein brother. We will praise them both for being increasingly reasonable voices on the left. We will admit we never thought we’d say that, but we are happy to be wrong:
As many of you know by now, Dom Lucre's X account was suspended last night.
— Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) July 26, 2023
Those on the right are claiming that Elon Musk and Twitter unfairly suspended him because they are once again trying to ban conservatives.
Those on the left are celebrating the suspension of Dom… pic.twitter.com/Qa4iHmj11R
The full message reads:
As many of you know by now, Dom Lucre's X account was suspended last night.
Those on the right are claiming that Elon Musk and Twitter unfairly suspended him because they are once again trying to ban conservatives.
Those on the left are celebrating the suspension of Dom because, well, they don't like what he posts. I don't think either approach is right.
The way I see it is that Twitter needs to come up with a better solution. If someone is banned or suspended, both the account owner and everyone else on Twitter should be able to see exactly why. We need transparency.
When viewing a suspended account, everyone should be able to click to see the Tweet that the user was suspended for and/or the exact reason for the suspension as well as how long that suspension will last.
The same should go for shadowbans. If an account is shadowbanned, the user and those visiting their profile should be able to clearly see this and see the reason for the ban.
Additionally, I think Twitter should allow for a 'community notes' type suspension voting system. They should explicitly show the rule that the user broke and allow the community to vote on whether or not that user broke that rule.
I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Our lawyer brain knows exactly why Twitter doesn’t share the reason why in public: They are trying to avoid defamation suits. We won’t go over it again, but defamation generally requires you to communicate the defamation to a third party—that is, someone besides the speaker and the person claiming they are being defamed. So imagine if Twitter told Jason Aldean (and Mr. Aldean only) he was banned from Twitter for advocating for violence by posting the video for the song ‘Try that in a Small Town.’ While we have already explained why that it isn’t true, that is not defamation—because they didn’t tell anyone else. But if Twitter told the whole world that it was banning him for that reason, Aldean might successfully sue them for defamation.
Of course, there is a way to construct such a public statement to prevent any claims for defamation from succeeding, but most legal departments don’t even want their companies to be sued at all, if they can help it.
In any case, Musk himself responded to Krassenstein:
The reason for suspension should be shown, along with ability to appeal quickly and easily. There are so many layers of software (20+ million lines) that this is much harder than it should be.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 26, 2023
I’m told that this account was suspended for posting child exploitation pictures…
The second paragraph reads:
I’m told that this account was suspended for posting child exploitation pictures associated with the criminal conviction of an Australian man in the Philippines.
So, it may have been that Lucre was too graphic when discussing an pretty evil man’s cruelty. We discussed how the movie Sound of Freedom probably has to walk a similar line earlier today. We don’t know if that is true or not, but either way, that exchange seems to have shaken something lose because the next thing we know, Lucre was free and thankful:
I never knew how much people appreciated me until I saw the support I gained when I was suspended. From the largest to the smallest accounts, you all advocated for my return. From prominent Democrats like the Krassensteins to members of NAFO.
— Dom Lucre | Breaker of Narratives (@dom_lucre) July 26, 2023
I shed real tears, not from the ban… pic.twitter.com/c0dIGtBVw6
The rest of the message reads:
I shed real tears, not from the ban but from the support. I am so thankful for all of you. ALL OF YOU.
I promise, it will only get better from here. I also want to say, I love President Obama and think he is one of the best presidents of all time, there is no way he did anything wrong to that chef.
We are so back!
We read the comments about Obama and the chef him being comedic.
Still, good for him. But we kept pressing to release the other three accounts and we are gratified to see that Bumpstock Barbie was un-suspended:
Ok, now let’s get the rest of our people back!! @support needs to reinstate @dom_lucre and @RantyAmyCurtis, to start with!!
— Helena Handbasket (@BumpstockBarbie) July 26, 2023
Cc @PolitiBunny @AaronWorthing https://t.co/pcPOln0h17
So, one theory is that we totally did this. Another is that when Dom Lucre’s suspension got Musk’s attention, some things shook loose. But ‘Barbie’ has her own explanation:
How did you fix this? One of our guys posted a joke that had the context purposely removed by Twitter and then suspended.
— Connect Cards (@connect_cards) July 26, 2023
I kept appealing, appealing, and appealing…..and I got friends to basically start a Twitter campaign lol
— Helena Handbasket (@BumpstockBarbie) July 26, 2023
I think I’ve sent in like 40 appeals since I was told I was suspended.
— Helena Handbasket (@BumpstockBarbie) July 26, 2023
We don’t pretend to actually know what worked, but maybe try what she did?
@kelly_renee1 is another suspended account that shouldn’t be.
— §Kamando (@kamando) July 26, 2023
We can’t vouch for that, except at this point, a Twitter suspension is inherently suspicious in our minds.
We would also note that @rsmccain, a.k.a. ‘The Other McCain’ remains banned on Twitter. He was suspended for simple reporting on various cultural figures and there was some concern that the committee that made the decision might've included one of the people he reported on and she might not have recused herself. We’re not saying she definitely had a hand in his suspension, but he deserved to know whether she did one way or the other. We would hope that X/Twitter would review his suspension and reverse it. We feel utterly confident that he came nowhere near any violation of Twitter’s rules—except the unwritten one against conservatives.
And of course @rantyamycurtis and @projectvirginia remain suspended and we do feel their suspensions were unjust. Anything you can do to keep the pressure up and get this resolved would be appreciated. This author only has this Twitchy soapbox, but we will do what we can.
And really, truly, Twitter needs to reform its suspension process. We can’t think of any time we saw a conservative who was suspended for a reason that seemed just.
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