Republican Reps. Jim Banks and Marjorie Taylor Greene were dinged by Twitter recently for saying that Rachel Levine, a transgender Biden administration official, was a man.
Mr. Banks of Indiana said Saturday that his official account was suspended after he tweeted, “The title of first female four-star officer gets taken by a man,” referring to Dr. Levine’s promotion to four-star admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.
Meanwhile, Twitter placed a “hateful conduct” warning on — but did not remove — a tweet by Ms. Greene, Georgia Republican, that said, “A dude who lived the first 50 years of his life as a man isn’t the first female anything.”
“This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about hateful conduct,” said the Twitter tag. “However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible.”
Twitter’s “hateful conduct” policy prohibits “targeting others with repeated slurs, tropes or other content that intends to dehumanize, degrade or reinforce negative or harmful stereotypes about a protected category. This includes targeted misgendering or deadnaming of transgender individuals.”
In an Instagram statement, Mr. Banks said, “My tweet was a statement of fact. Big Tech doesn’t have to agree with me, but they shouldn’t cancel me.”
He said he would use his personal account while his official account was frozen.
“If they silence me, they will silence you,” Mr. Banks continued. “We can’t allow Big Tech to prevent us from telling the truth. When Republicans take back the House next year, we must restore honesty to our public forums and hold Big Tech accountable.”
Twitter has suspended my official account for posting a statement of FACT.
I won’t back down.
I’ll be posting on my personal account for the time being.
Please Retweet this message and follow me -> @Jim_Banks.
Big Tech must be held accountable!
— Jim Banks (@Jim_Banks) October 23, 2021
Twitter censors tweets from Republican congress members @Jim_Banks & @mtgreenee that referred to the assistant health secretary, Rachel Levine, as a man after the transgender woman was named the first female four star admiral in Public Health Service. https://t.co/MHfAZOtVVN
— Andy Ngô 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) October 23, 2021
Dr. Levine reportedly transitioned from male to female in 2011 at the age of 53.
The crackdown on the tweets sparked an uproar on the right, where commenters accused the tech giant of censorship.
Terry Schilling, president of the conservative American Principles Project, said that “Congressman Jim Banks tweeted something demonstrably and irrefutably true. Rachel Levine is biologically a man.”
“This should be a wake up call for every American,” Mr. Schilling said. “Our ruling class has moved beyond silencing people for mere politically incorrect opinions. They are now actively censoring speech they know is factually correct in order to bolster a false reality. That the victim in this instance is a prominent Republican leader in Congress makes this latest power grab even more frightening.”
The Washington Times has reached out to Twitter for comment.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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