President of Judicial Watch Tom Fitton said Twitter had suspended his account for at least seven days for allegedly violating the platform’s rules.
Fitton said he was locked out of his account for posting “#Hydroxychloroquine is a safe drug,” a topic he has been posting on since September. He said at that time, Twitter “specifically found that it was not in violate [sic] of its rules” but has now decided to take action against the account.
“I have ‘appealed’ but we all know, given this background, that this is not about HCQ, it is about finding a pretext to silence another leading conservative voice,” Fitton said in a statement on Parler.
Twitter’s ban comes as big tech companies ramp up their policing of statements and comments from President Donald Trump, conservatives, and other voices they claim may cause harm.
The social media company on Jan. 8 permanently removed Trump’s account on its platform and justified its censorship by saying that the president had violated its “Glorification of Violence Policy” after he posted a message urging protesters to remain peaceful and leave the Capitol. The Trump campaign’s Twitter account has also been removed.