Twitter has reinstated Remix News’ Twitter account after our site was permanently suspended more than two years ago without warning. Although Elon Musk’s amnesty has yet to fully materialize for many of the users that were previously banned, the return of Remix News is obviously a positive development for this site.
The reality is that Remix News never had an enormous following on Twitter, even if we were seeing steady growth. Nevertheless, our ban stood out from the hundreds of thousands, and perhaps even millions of accounts, that had been unceremoniously removed from Twitter over the years. While many of these victims were anonymous but influential accounts, internet personalities, political commentators, and dissidents, there were very few news outlets or organizations that were outright banned.
Remix News is a news outlet, and according to the politicians in the EU, journalism is sacred. Musk’s temporary ban of a few journalists, some of whom were allegedly doxxing people, including Musk himself, was met with rage in Brussels, Berlin, and Paris.
The reality is that these same politicians did not bat an eyelash when Twitter suspended the New York Post for the Hunter Biden laptop story, nor would they lose any sleep if the New York Post were suddenly banned tomorrow. The reality is that all of these journalists and even the New York Post only faced temporary suspensions, while the suspension of Remix News was permanent, or at least it was supposed to be before Musk took over.
The suppression of our news outlet, therefore, does stand out. The few news organizations that were entirely removed only faced the ban hammer after incredible pressure from interest groups and significant media attention, such as the case of Alex Jones and InfoWars or Project Veritas. One of the few other exceptions was Poland Daily, which was also banned shortly before Remix News.
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The news of our suspension was even covered by some of the most-read media outlets among the liberal-left that run Europe, including Euronews. While it is not really Euronews’ job to go to bat for Remix News, it is worth noting that the outlet never appeared particularly concerned over the banning of an entire news outlet.
Instead, Euronews simply shared Twitter’s explanation, which claimed that Remix News was banned “under their policy on platform manipulation and spam policy.” That was news to us at the time. It was also a blatant lie. The reality was there was no “platform manipulation” or “spam.” It was nothing more than a pretext for kicking Remix News off the platform. It was also highly effective, as the ban came before Remix News could build up a following large enough to make any real waves when our ban came down. The reality is that very few people defended us, and certainly there were no politicians — either from the right or left — decrying censorship.
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One thing is clear. The two-year-long ban cost this site dearly — not just in terms of page views either. As Elon Musk said himself, Twitter is where the world’s conversation takes place. Being censored from the platform, especially for any outlet producing news, is one of the most egregious acts against free speech and freedom of the press in the modern era.
It is unclear how free speech and freedom of opinion will progress under Twitter under Musk, and of course, the platform faces enormous challenges from the EU, advertisers, and vicious activist organizations like the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Nevertheless, we ask our readers to follow us on the platform and share our content as much as possible. We have a lot of catching up to do.
