After persistent lobbying from left wing activists, on the 19th June 2020 Twitter permanently suspended the Twitter account of journalist Katie Hopkins, denying 1.1 million followers of her often feisty views and opinions. This move comes after the tiny leftist organisation the CCDH met with Twitter earlier in the year in an attempt to persuade Twitter to deplatform her. Those efforts failed, but the activism didn’t stop and an eventual ban had an air of inevitability. AltNewsMedia covered the far left activists CCDH here.

The second (and declared permanent) ban occurred  after Hopkins tweeted a Blackadder quote in her good humoured commentary on Marcus Rashford’s campaign for the continuation of free school meals over the summer holidays.

The prospect of an appeal was quashed before it could be launched, with Twitter rushing to the Press and announcing that ‘the ban was permanent’. Strange customer service principles at Twitter, but as with PayPal who equally drop the ban hammer with gusto, virtue signalling to the crowd trumps fairness and due process when it comes to certain individuals. At time of writing, Twitter’s own profile (an account with 58 million followers) simply reads: “black queer lives matter, black trans lives matter”. Their avatar and background have been turned black just in case anyone isn’t sure of their political viewpoint.

As with other ‘right wing’ accounts, Twitter did not explain which of their “Terms of Service” rules the offending Hopkins’ tweet breached. In reality they of course know that it didn’t contravene any, hence why they always refused to commit to specifics, the same tactic is employed by PayPal, as it leaves them open to legitimate legal challenge.

Undeterred, Hopkins took to the social media app Parler, a rival to Twitter that purports to uphold free speech, and this move has seen a huge transition of accounts to that platform with the help of a #Twexit campaign. Parler trended on twitter, and took the number 1 slot for Social Media downloads. At time of writing Hopkins had added 187,000 followers, a number rising by the minute.

She also directed people to her updated Instagram page, though the predictable petition to remove her soon started. It is worth stating that Hopkins has never found guilty of any ‘hate’ or racist criminal offence. The accounts of Jeremy Corbyn and Labour Party officials currently under investigation by the EHRC for racism are still active, including that of Rebecca Long-Bailey who has lost her role on the opposition benches for antisemitism. All evidence points to Twitter’s motives being political, also exemplified by the recent censoring of President Trump’s tweets.

To expose the hypocrisy of the American social media giants, Hopkins decided to sponsor an advert on Instagram (owned by Facebook) after directing her followers there. Instagram processed the payment and promoted her advert (image below), until the ‘risk of association’ kicked in and the campaign was deleted. Instagram are now losing advertisers due to lobbying and this undoubtedly played a part in their decision.

Extreme virtue signallers Ben & Jerry’s are the latest organisation to pull advertising from Facebook until the social media giant ‘stops promoting hate’, costing the organisation millions. The creation and rise of the non-profit ‘Stop Hate for Profit’ campaign has been joined by influential organisations such as the ADL with their subjective view of what constitutes ‘hate’ making the rules. Unchecked, increased censorship of conservative voices is inevitable, particularly in the run up to the 2020 Presidential Election.

Facebook are happy to take Katie Hopkins’ money and promote her message, and this may surprise those that take issue with her. But if it risks profit, then principles are abandoned; they took down the ad without the courtesy of telling their paying customer, AFTER processing her money.

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As Katie herself stated:

“I appreciate Instagram will shut down my account for exposing this. But young people need to understand . Instagram and Facebook are willing to take money from me to promote my accounts with one hand, whilst censoring them with the other. You are Facebook’s product. You are being processed for cash”.

AltNewsMedia have approached Facebook for comment.

You can follow Katie on Parler at @KTHopkins

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