After about 24 hours of being locked out, The Tennessee Star’s Twitter account has been unlocked, and its full functionality restored.
“After The Tennessee Star reported a factual story on Friday about Tennessee Governor Bill Lee (R-TN) signing a bill into law making Ivermectin available over-the-counter, Twitter has locked The Tennessee Star out of its account,” The Star reported Saturday.
The social media giant said that The Star’s reporting might pose a risk to public health.
It remains unclear whether the account was suspended or locked. The Star received different messages from the social media giant, and could not contact an actual person at the company for clarification.
One automated message said the account would be locked until afternoon on Saturday.
“As a result, we’ve added a label to the above Tweet(s) and temporarily limited some of your account features,” Twitter said. “While in this state, you can still browse Twitter, but you’re limited to only sending Direct Messages to your followers — no Tweets, Retweets, follows or likes.”
Another automated message said the account was suspended for a week.
“After careful review, we determined your account broke the Twitter Rules,” that message said. “Your account is temporarily in read-only mode, which means you can’t Tweet, Retweet, or Like content. Most accounts regain full access in a week, but it could take longer.”
Some in the conservative community amplified The Star’s Saturday story about its ban.
Former congressman from California, Republican Devin Nunes, noted that the ban was “Wokers at work,” using former President Donald Trump’s new social media platform Truth Social to spread the word.
Former Trump Senior Advisor Jason Miller used social networking platform GETTR to get the message out, too.
“We want to thank our friends at GETTR and Truth Social for providing the marketplace competition that encouraged Twitter to reverse their ill-advised decision to lock our account for reporting a factual story,” Michael Patrick Leahy, CEO and Editor-in-chief of The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network, said.
Tesla’s CEO and owner Elon Musk made waves last week when he purchased Twitter from its current owners, announcing that he will take the company private.
The entrepreneur, who is also the world’s richest man, has promised to restore freedom of speech to the platform, which has been known to censor conservative users.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Twitter allows porn, physical threats against Russia and Russians, parody so long as the target is “conservative”, etc.
The only thing Twitter and Tennessee Star have in common is both ban any criticism of our Greatest Ally.
Musk’s quote, at least one of them, mentions free speech within the law. I’m not sure that constitutes free speech. Those expecting him to swoop in and bring true free speech to Twitter may be in for a different result.