by Caitlin Johnstone
July 12, 2019
One of the biggest Twitter
accounts dedicated to circulating information and advocacy for WikiLeaks
founder Julian Assange, @Unity4J, has been completely removed from the site.
The operators of the account report that they have been given no reason for its
removal by Twitter staff, and have received no response to their appeals.
Any Assange supporter active
on Twitter will be familiar with the Unity4J account, which originated to help
boost the wildly successful Unity4J online
vigils in which well-known Assange defenders would appear to speak out
against his persecution. As of this writing, the account has been gone for
a day and a half.
“About 8:45am CST on Thursday
July 11, one of our Unity4J Twitter team members went to retweet on the account
and noticed that the account was no longer accessible,” reports pro-Assange
activist Christy Dopf, one of the operators of the account. “When each of us
also attempted to access the account we all received the same message ‘Account
Suspended’. Twitter did not send us a reason or violation for the suspension.
So an appeal was submitted. We did receive correspondence that Twitter got our
request and the case is currently open. Unfortunately we do not have a timeline
on how long this could take.”
Speaking for myself as a vocal
Assange supporter on Twitter, I can say that I’ve been following the @Unity4J
account closely since its earliest days and I’ve never once seen it post
anything other than highly professional-looking advocacy for Julian Assange.
I’ve certainly never seen it post anything that could be construed as abusive,
misleading, or otherwise in violation of any of Twitter’s posted rules.
The main Twitter account
defending Julian Assange, and therefore press freedom & freedom of speech,
has been suspended.@Unity4J -
suspended for defending a hero.#Unity4J
This account’s deletion is
just the latest in a long string of apparently biased actions against WikiLeaks
and Assange by the immensely influential social media platform. That bias was
made abundantly clear with Twitter’s ridiculous refusal
to verify Assange while he was posting from his own account despite
his undeniably being a significant public figure, and despite the fact that
Twitter was well
aware that the account was authentic. The platform has been receiving consistent
complaints among Assange supporters of using shadow bans to marginalize
their voices, as well as unfair posting
locks and restrictions.
“It seems that Assange
supporters have been targeted for suspension over the last few days and weeks,
including the suspension of individuals (Yon Solitary, Monique Jolie) as well
as accounts like Unity4J,” Unity4J co-founder Elizabeth Lea Vos told me today.
“All of these suspensions are unacceptable, but I find the Unity4J suspension
especially egregious because it was an amplifier of events across the board,
not only actions run by Unity4J. It never broke the twitter rules and it
was an activist account supporting a journalist who’s been silenced or
‘disappeared,’ so this suspension is an extension of that suppression. Assange
asked us to become his voice, and platforms like Twitter appear to be actively
working against the possibility of that effort.”
Pro-Assange activists have
been speaking out on Twitter against @Unity4J’s removal.
“The main Twitter account
defending Julian Assange, and therefore press freedom and freedom of speech,
has been suspended,” tweeted comedian
and Redacted Tonight host Lee Camp. “@Unity4J – suspended for
defending a hero.”
“HELP!! Twitter suspended
@Unity4J The global #FreeAssange supporters account!” tweetedAssange’s
mother Christine Assange. “Its a central point for updates, interviews and
actions re my son politically persecuted journalist JULIAN ASSANGE! Please
demand @TwitterSupport and @Jack re-instate it. Many thanks #Unity4J”
“I have no doubt that
@Unity4J’s twitter account was suspended because it was a hub of useful
information on solidarity events and actions in support of Assange, WikiLeaks,
Chelsea Manning and more. Horrendous censorship to suspend the account,
@TwitterSupport,” tweeted Elizabeth
Lea Vos.
“If @Unity4J is not restored,
it is proof that Twitter would have sided against the Free Mandela movement,
and every other mass liberation movement of a ‘terrorist’ turned Nobel
nominee,” tweetedUnity4J
co-founder Suzie Dawson.
HELP!! @Twitter suspended @Unity4J
The global #FreeAssange supporters account!
Its a central point for updates, interviews & actions re my son politically persecuted journalist JULIAN ASSANGE!
Please demand @TwitterSupport & @Jack re-instate it.
Many thanks #Unity4J
The global #FreeAssange supporters account!
Its a central point for updates, interviews & actions re my son politically persecuted journalist JULIAN ASSANGE!
Please demand @TwitterSupport & @Jack re-instate it.
Many thanks #Unity4J
Many other Assange supporters
have been flagging
the attention of the Twitter Support account and Twitter CEO Jack
Dorsey objecting to the unjust silencing of a perfectly legitimate activist
account, to no avail thus far.
The censorship of political
speech on online media platforms is a large and growing problem. Twitter has
been better about this than the far more sycophantic Facebook and Google, but
the discrimination against anti-establishment political speech is undeniable at
this point. I myself was removed
from the platform last year just for saying the world would be better
off without warmongering US Senator John McCain in it, and was only restored
after protests from high-profile Twitter users.
In a corporatist system of
government, in which there is no meaningful separation of corporate power and
state power, corporate censorship is state censorship. With giant Silicon
Valley corporations aligning
themselves with shady state-funded propagandistic think tanks like the
Atlantic Council, being admonished on
the Senate floor that they must help quash political rebellion, and
being targeted
for narrative control influence by the US military, there’s
vanishingly little difference between what’s happening more and more to political
speech with these tech giants and what happens in overtly totalitarian
governments. The only difference is the stories people choose to tell
themselves about it.
The time to speak up about
this silencing is now. Your voice is next.
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