Several prominent left-wing media figures were suspended from Twitter this week, including longtime leftist commentator Keith Olbermann.
While some of these reporters and bloggers have been suspended for violating Twitter’s terms of service (and have since been reinstated), Olbermann’s profile is still suspended.
In fact, Olbermann told Variety that he had been permanently banned.
Olbermann has tried to circumvent the Twitter suspension by co-opting his own dog adoption and rescue account.
The former ESPN pundit did not handle his ban particularly gracefully, as evidenced by this outburst:
WARNING: The following clip contains language that some readers may find offensive
“Doubt you’ve heard but Musk banned me permanently from Twitter for NOT doing something he said WASN’T against the rules!”
“It was the baptism scene from The Godfather and Elon Muskleone”
LISTEN TO FRIDAY’S POST/SUSPENSION COUNTDOWN HERE and PLEASE RT! https://t.co/4Qp9MpgzQr pic.twitter.com/HiB8NYTKDV
— Keith Olbermann’s Dogs (@TomJumboGrumbo) December 16, 2022
Olbermann likened Musk to a fictional mob boss during his recorded tirade, among other, more colorful insults.
“What a friggin’ candy-a**, lying, hypocritical, self-contradicting, little, paranoid snowflake that ‘Apartheid Clyde’ really is,” Olbermann said.
“It was the baptism scene from The Godfather and Elon Muskleone,” Olbermann added.
Other notable suspensions include The Washington Post reporter Drew Harwell, The New York Times’ Ryan Mac, and progressive blogger Aaron Rupar.
These accounts were seemingly suspended for sharing content related to @ElonJet, a Twitter account that tracked the movements of Twitter owner Elon Musk’s private jet in real time.
“Criticizing me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not,” Musk tweeted.
Criticizing me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 16, 2022
As Musk has pointed out, doxxing isn’t permitted on Twitter.
Any account doxxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation. This includes posting links to sites with real-time location info.
Posting locations someone traveled to on a slightly delayed basis isn’t a safety problem, so is ok.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 15, 2022
“Any account doxxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation,” he said. “This includes posting links to sites with real-time location info. Posting locations someone traveled to on a slightly delayed basis isn’t a safety problem, so is ok.”
Olbermann’s not the only one to take the Twitter suspension as something other than a reasonable reaction to a serious problem.
Drew Harwell told CNN that “Elon says he is a free speech champion and he is banning journalists for exercising free speech. I think that calls into question his commitment.”
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.