Twitter has locked the account of conservative evangelical pundit Erick Erickson over a post mocking Democrat presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren for her false claims of significant Native American ancestry.
Erickson, the former editor-in-chief and CEO of RedState, joked on Twitter that Warren is set to introduce a “Wrecking American Prosperity Under Marxism or WAMPUM act,” a boomer-humor dig at the Democrat contender’s widely mocked claims of Native American ancestry. (A Wampum is a traditional Native American decoration made of beads).
For this, Twitter locked Erickson out of his account for 12 hours. In its message to Erickson, Twitter said his account had been locked for “hateful conduct.”
.@EWErickson is suspended from Twitter for 12 hours for making a "wampum" joke about Elizabeth Warren. (See below.) But his point was not to mock her for being an American Indian, but for *falsely claiming* to be one. pic.twitter.com/VFt6ImZa85
— Patterico (@Patterico) May 31, 2019
“[Erick Erickson] is suspended from Twitter for 12 hours for making a “wampum” joke about Elizabeth Warren. (See below.)” wrote Patrick Frey, author of the long-running conservative blog Patterico. “But his point was not to mock her for being an American Indian, but for *falsely claiming* to be one.”
This is Twitter violating its own hateful conduct policy by harassing @EWErickson because they disagreed with his politics. It was a joke, and not an exceptionally provocative one by an stretch of the imagination. It’s outrageous. https://t.co/k7h68T38qE
— JD Rucker (@JDRucker) May 31, 2019
“This is Twitter violating its own hateful conduct by harassing [Erickson] because they disagreed with his politics,” wrote JD Rucker, editor-in-chief of conservative news site NOQ Report. “It was a joke, and not an exceptionally provocative one by any stretch of the imagination. It’s outrageous.”
Twitter’s decision to lock the account of another prominent conservative figure comes on the heels of the platform’s suspension of Eoin Lenihan, a researcher who recently exposed connections between the violent far-left Antifa movement and mainstream journalists on Twitter. Lenihan also analyzed the coverage of those journalists, finding that the majority of them either outright praised the violent movement or refrained from criticizing it.
Twitter said that Lenihan was suspended for violating Twitter’s rules, but the platform did not specify which one. The platform did not add any additional comments about Erickson’s suspension beyond the reason stated in the message about “hateful conduct” sent the conservative pundit.
Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter, Gab.ai and add him on Facebook. Email tips and suggestions to allumbokhari@protonmail.com.
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