Twitter Warns Michelle Malkin for Violating Pakistan’s Sharia Law on Platform

Michelle Malkin speaking at an event in Greenville, South Carolina.
Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia
Charlie Nash

Twitter has been warning users from around the world, including conservative writer and commentator Michelle Malkin, that their posts on the platform violate Pakistan’s Sharia law, and that they “may wish to consult legal counsel.”

Conservative commentator Michelle Malkin received Twitter’s Sharia notice, as well as Muslim reformist Imam Mohamad Tawhidi, Islam critic Pamela Geller, human rights activist Ensaf Haidar, and FrontPage Magazine managing editor Jamie Glazov.

“Last week, the little birdies in Twitter’s legal department notified me that one of my tweets from 2015 is ‘in violation of Pakistan law,'” proclaimed Malkin in a blog post. “My innocuous tweet featured a compilation image of the 12 Muhammad cartoons published by Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in 2005. It also linked to my Jan. 8, 2015, syndicated column on the Charlie Hebdo jihad massacre in Paris. There’s no hate, violence, profanity or pornography, just harmless drawings and peacefully expressed opinions about the Western media’s futile attempts to appease the unappeasable enforcers of sharia law, which bans all insults of Islam.”

The notice which Malkin received from Twitter, declared, “We are writing to inform you that Twitter has received official correspondence regarding your Twitter account, @michellemalkin. The correspondence claims that the following content is in violation of Pakistan law.”

“Twitter has not taken any action on the reported content at this time. We are only writing to inform you that content posted to your account has been mentioned in a complaint,” the notice continued. “This notice is not legal advice. You may wish to consult legal counsel about this matter.”

Malkin added, “I have written to Twitter’s legal & media relations departments seeking answers and comment on why American citizens who use their service are now subject to Pakistan’s oppressive anti-blasphemy laws. No response yet.”

“As an American citizen who is subject to America’s laws—not Pakistan’s or Mohammed’s—I’ll retweet my harmless little Mo cartoons to my 2.1 million followers every day from now on and stand with other targets on the side of free speech and free thought,” Malkin stated. “How about you, Twitter?”

Pakistan has strict blasphemy laws, with sentences ranging from imprisonment for life to execution.

According to Malkin, “several other prominent critics of Islamic extremism have received similar warning letters from Twitter’s legal department, including Saudi-Canadian activist Ensaf Haidar, the wife of imprisoned Saudi blogger Raif Badawi; Imam Mohammad Tawhidi, an Iranian-born Muslim scholar and reform advocate from Australia; Jamie Glazov, a Russian-born Canadian columnist who just released a new book called ‘Jihadist Psychopath’; and Pamela Geller, an anti-jihad blogger and activist.”

Twitter’s notices were called out by Donald Trump Jr., who posted, “Insane that twitter is warning Americans & non-Pakistanis that their words violate laws in a foreign country under Shria law??? Let that sink in for a second.”

Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter, or like his page at Facebook.

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