James Woods has been kicked off of Twitter for a tweet from his past containing a meme of a fake Democratic campaign poster, which Twitter says "has the potential to be misleading in a way that could impact an election," according to an email form the company cited by Woods.
— Kaya Jones (@KayaJones) September 23, 2018
According to a statement, Woods was told by Twitter that he would be allowed back on the site on the condition that he deletes his tweet, which he posted on July 20. The Washington Times reached out to Twitter for comment, but a spokesperson for the platform said that Twitter doesn't comment on individual accounts, citing security and privacy concerns.
"The facts are that I was banned from Twitter yesterday because of an anonymous complaint referencing a tweet I posted in July," Woods said September 22. "Henceforth, my 1.7 million followers will no longer hear my views. The purge of conservatives continues unabated on social media."
According to Woods, he was given the boot for making a "sarcastic remark about Democrats," Woods told the Associated Press. He also said he has no intention of bending to the demands to delete the tweet in question.
"The irony is, Twitter accused me of affecting the political process, when in fact, their banning of me is the truly egregious interference," the conservative told AP.
"Because now, having your voice smothered is much more disturbing than having your vocal chords slit. If you want to kill my free speech, man up and slit my throat with a knife, don't smother me with a pillow."
Woods' Twitter account is still viewable online. Twitter has previously banned conspiracy peddlers such as Alex Jones and his InfoWars outlet, raising concerns about the social media platform's ability to exile some individuals from the digital public square. Conservatives in recent months have complained of being outright banned or "shadowbanned" from the platform, while those on the left have complained about the arbitrary or unfair application of Twitter's terms of use regulations to silence their voices.
