Seth Dillon, the CEO of the Babylon Bee, a satirical Christian website, is refusing to take down a tweet that labeled Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel Levine, who is transgender, a man.
The site’s account received a suspension from Twitter for mocking USA Today’s decision to name Levine the “Woman of the Year.”
The Bee’s tweet read, “The Babylon Bee’s Man Of The Year Is Rachel Lavine.”
Dillon tweeted on Sunday, “I just received this notice that we’ve been locked out of our account for ‘hateful conduct.'”
He explained that the account could be restored “in 12 hours,” but “the countdown won’t begin until we delete the tweet that violates the Twitter Rules.”
However, Dillon signaled that the Bee is not going to comply with the requirement.
“We’re not deleting anything. Truth is not hate speech. If the cost of telling the truth is the loss of our Twitter account, then so be it,” he wrote.
We're told our account will be restored in 12 hours, but the countdown won't begin until we delete the tweet that violates the Twitter Rules. pic.twitter.com/85tdmrqJpU
— Seth Dillon (@SethDillon) March 20, 2022
On Monday morning, Dillon shared a statement Twitter gave to media outlets that read, “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.”
They 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.
— Seth Dillon (@SethDillon) March 21, 2022
“They 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,” he wrote.
Levine was confirmed in a 52-48 vote last year with Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) crossing party lines to vote for her nomination.
As The Washington Post notes, Levine’s confirmation made “her the highest-ranking openly transgender official in U.S. history.”
“Her candidacy was widely opposed by religious rights groups, and some Republican critics also zeroed in on gaps in Pennsylvania’s nursing home data that they said complicated the state’s response to the pandemic,” it added.