Sen. Tom Cotton Wednesday accused the "Twitter thought police" of trying to censor his account after he'd posted a tweet saying that military troops could be used to support local police against people who were rioting and looting after the death of George Floyd.
"I came on this program a couple Mondays ago and we talked about the rioting and looting and the need, if necessary, to use the military to back up their police where they are outnumbered by these rioters and looters and anarchists," the Arkansas Republican said on Fox News' "Fox and Friends," after writing an opinion piece for the network about his experience with the social media giant. "Apparently that didn't sit well with the Twitter thought police."
In his article, Cotton said that "first on television, then on Twitter, I noted that the National Guard and active-duty troops could be called out to support local police if necessary, as happened during the 1992 Los Angeles riots."
He then posted a tweet saying "no quarter for insurrectionists, anarchists, rioters, and looters," which he said Twitter claimed meant that a military force wouldn't take prisoners but instead would shoot them.
"One of their low-level employees in Washington, D.C. contacted my office out of the blue and said 'you have to delete these tweets in 30 minutes or we are going to permanently lock your account,'" Cotton said Wednesday. "We asked for an explanation of why that was. It was not really forthcoming. They cited a policy that didn't explain or apply to my situation. We sent them back some clear evidence of my meaning on Twitter."
The senator added his office "called their bluff for 30 minutes," but Twitter didn't lock down his account. After two hours, "they got back to us and said okay, you can keep your post up."
Cotton's experience came after his opinion piece for The New York Times on the use of the military against protesters was met with protests, including among the newspaper's workers, leading to the resignation of the company's editorial page editor.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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