Netizens have accused Twitter of double standards, reacting angrily to a resurfaced tweet by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from May 2017 and containing claims the 2016 US presidential election "was hijacked".
The tweet was posted in the run-up to Robert Mueller's appointment as special counsel to investigate allegations of collusion between Russian officials and the Trump campaign in 2016. The probe found insufficient evidence to substantiate such collusion.
Our election was hijacked. There is no question. Congress has a duty to #ProtectOurDemocracy & #FollowTheFacts.
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) May 16, 2017
Many Twitter users questioned the social media platform's consistency, arguing that Pelosi's tweet "incites violence", something used by Twitter as a pretext to permanently suspend US President Donald Trump's personal account last week.
Nancy incited this violence years ago
— Mighty Eternal Truth (@DailyGraceTruth) January 11, 2021
How is this not “inciting violence” or “misinformation”. Total and blatant hypocrisy.
— Trey Conrad (@TweeterGibson) January 11, 2021
Seems to be a double standard with what is allowed on Twitter.
— madmama (@NancyPotts) January 13, 2021
@tweeter this was debunked how come this tweet it’s not erased??? Pls let this American know why oh why?
— Greymar Araya (@ArayaGreymar) January 13, 2021
Hypocrisy at it's finest. Saying the same as Trump, but since it is the RIGHT side doing it.....it's wrong. LoL..keep up the great work.
— Tim Lark (@Tim58630498) January 12, 2021
"Seems to be a double standard with what is allowed on Twitter", one user noted, while another netizen described the situation as "hypocrisy at it's finest".
Funny this wasn't flagged by twitter as Disputed!🤔smh!
— Samwel Byegon🇺🇸🇰🇪 (@SamieByegon) January 11, 2021
InCiTiNg ViOlEnCe
— Mark Dice (@MarkDice) January 11, 2021
Why wasn't this flagged? This was prior to any investigation was launched.@MayUbeku
— Soon President (@calebOkechukwu) January 8, 2021
Last Friday, Twitter expressed concern that allowing Trump to return to the platform after a temporary suspension risked "further incitement of violence", in the wake of the 6 January events, when POTUS supporters stormed the Capitol in Washington, trying to prevent certification of the 3 November presidential election results.
Shortly thereafter, Trump tweeted from the US president's official @POTUS account that he would "look at the possibilities of building out our own platform in the future".
