Big Tech Crackdown: Twitter Permanently Suspends Project Veritas, Locks James O'Keefe Out of His Account
Project Veritas and its founder James O’Keefe are the latest victims of Twitter’s push to silence conservatives on the platform.
Fox News reported Thursday that a spokesperson for Twitter confirmed the account @Project_Veritas was “permanently suspended for repeated violations of Twitter’s private information policy.”
Further, the @JamesOKeefeIII account was “temporarily locked for violating [Twitter’s] private information policy.” O’Keefe’s personal account has since been unlocked.
O’Keefe responded to Twitter’s moves in a statement provided to The Western Journal.
“Late last night, Twitter locked Project Veritas’s and my Twitter accounts, claiming we violated Twitter Guidelines by posting a video of our journalists asking questions of Facebook’s Vice President Guy Rosen which Rosen refused to answer,” he said.
“Twitter claimed the video published private information, which is false. Twitter invited Project Veritas to, and we did, appeal that decision with Twitter,” O’Keefe continued.
“In an apparent act of retaliation for daring to question their authority, Twitter responded to our appeal by suspending our account, continuing to tell us that Project Veritas could delete the tweet and have our account reinstated. “
The video O’Keefe referenced is still on YouTube. In it, a Project Veritas reporter confronted Rosen, apparently outside the executive’s home, over Facebook’s ability to “freeze” comments that contain “hate speech.”
“How do you define hate speech? Is it just speech that you hate?” Project Veritas senior journalist Christian Hartsock asked Rosen, who did not respond.
Project Veritas, of course, is known for publishing undercover or leaked videos, released by “whistleblowers,” demonstrating the internal bias or policies of organizations like CNN and Twitter.
One that made headlines in January was Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in an internal company video announcing to employees the censoring of political speech on the platform would go beyond just banning then-President Donald Trump.
“We are focused on one account [@realDonaldTrump] right now, but this is going to be much bigger than just one account, and it’s going to go on for much longer than just this day, this week and the next few weeks. It’s going to go on beyond the inauguration,” Dorsey said in the video.
BREAKING: @Twitter Insider Secretly Records CEO @jack Detailing Agenda For Further Political Censorship
“We are focused on one account [@realDonaldTrump] right now but this is going to be MUCH BIGGER than just one account & it’s going to go on for much longer…”#ExposeTwitter pic.twitter.com/QhyyUTHlM9
— James O’Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) January 14, 2021
O’Keefe was defiant in the face of Twitter’s actions against him.
“This is nothing new from Twitter — just last fall Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey admitted in Congress his company’s decision to block the New York Post was erroneous while still demanding the Post kneel before them by deleting the tweet,” O’Keefe said in his statement provided to The Western Journal.
In October, Twitter prevented New York Post stories about President Joe Biden and Hunter Biden’s apparent plans to enter into a business venture with a Chinese energy company from being shared on the platform.
However, in December, Hunter Biden confirmed that his business dealings were under FBI investigation.
“Here we go again — Twitter opting to delete news and demand fealty when their decision is dared to be questioned,” O’Keefe said.
“I will not kneel,” he continued. “Twitter is wrong. Let them kneel.”
In addition to the actions taken against O’Keefe and Project Veritas, Twitter suspended the accounts of Gateway Pundit’s Jim Hoft and conservative radio talk show host Wayne Allyn Root last weekend.
Root cautioned in a Wednesday interview with The Western Journal that while he’s the victim now, all conservatives should take note.
“There’s nobody to protect Wayne Root,” he said. “There’s nobody to stop the IRS from coming after Republicans. There’s nobody to protect anything from anyone because [Democrats] own all the power now.”
“I just want you to understand you’re probably really angry, but you still don’t think it’s going to happen to you,” Root said. “Well, that was me a week ago. I’m telling you, it’s going to happen to you.”
“So I’m just telling you, they took me. Soon they’re coming for you.”
It’s ironic that the constant drumbeat by leftists during the Trump administration was: “The president’s a fascist.” Yet, what actions did he take to quash free speech?
Trump railed against “fake news,” of course, but he did not spy on the media as former President Barack Obama’s administration did in relation to the Associated Press and then-Fox News reporter James Rosen.
Further, Trump along with Republicans in Congress sought to hold social media companies, like Facebook and Twitter, to account for the censorship and bias directed against conservative outlets.
Now with Biden in the White House and Democrats in charge of Congress, it appears to be open season on conservatives — and sadly, no one seems willing to fight to uphold the First Amendment rights of all Americans.
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