Twitter has banned the account of a high-ranking Iraqi government official and militia leader. According to US State Department officials, this banning came directly as a result of the State Department complaining about him to Twitter.
The banned figure, Abu Mehdi al-Mohandis, is one of the top leaders of the Popular Mobilization Committee, the Iraqi government’s umbrella organization for pro-government Shi’ite militias, who are cooperating with the government in fighting ISIS. Mohandis is also the head of the Kataib Hezbollah militia, and a member of parliament affiliated with the Dawa Party.
The State Department says that a Shi’ite militia with the PMC fired a rocket at the US Consulate in Basra. The rocket didn’t hit the consulate, and no one was wounded, but some US officials implied this was Iran’s fault. Other US officials have conceded they have no evidence who actually fired the rocket, or who may have directed them to do so.
In reality, Mohandis had been deeply critical of the US in his Twitter posts, accusing US policy of driving the unrest in Basra. US officials say it was Mohandis’ “remarks” that prompted the call to Twitter.
Twitter isn’t officially commenting on the ban directly, but their statement did brag about removing “terrorist accounts.” This would suggest that the US is using Mohandis’ role as a militia leader to imply that he is a terrorist, and using that to get him banned from Twitter, which they’re only seeking because he’s using Twitter to voice disapproval of US policy.
What was all that about Twitter being a “private company” and therefore what it does “isn’t censorship”? That’s the standard liberal apologia for Twitter censorship, isn’t it?
And I laughed aloud when I read that rubbish about banning “terrorist accounts”. Twitter is rife with jihadi headchopper fanboy and fangirl accounts, which seem to be perfectly fine as long as they only attack Russia, Iran, and the Syrian government. However, pro-Russia/Iran/Syria accounts or those just critical of America are shut down immediately. One sure fire way of getting your account banned is to demand why Twitter doesn’t shut down Trump’s account even though he violates Twitter’s TOS on a daily basis.
I myself have had my Twitter accounts banned over and over as long as they were real accounts with my actual political views on display. However, I have a parody account pretending to be a Sunni jihadi terrorist – and that’s up and functioning even though according to Twitter’s TOS it should have been shut down long ago.
Hmmm, can someone please tell me what is a twitter? Is it like a jitter, sitter, spitter or shitter?
I’m delightfully ignorant of Twitter, Google, Facebook, Linkedin, and so one and so forth.
Most of you would benefit too if you emulate my level of ignorance (or non-use). They still print books, you know.