Between 1950, when he accused the US State Department of being “infested with Communists,” and his censure in the Senate in 1954, McCarthy had been the face of the ‘Red Scare’ in the US, and “McCarthyism” became synonymous with witch hunts.
Twitter is already in hot water over its censorious ways. Last week, the platform locked the account of the New York Post – a newspaper founded by Alexander Hamilton in 1801 – over their story about the laptop of Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden’s son Hunter. The company first claimed this violated the policy against “hacked materials,” then shifted to claiming it was “violating privacy,” then called it “potentially harmful,” before giving up on excuses altogether.
The Post has refused to delete the “offending” tweet, insisting their story was legitimate journalism. As a result, they have remained blocked since October 14.
Esha has reportedly bent the knee and agreed to censor her “abusive” post about metaphorical censorship. Her release from “Twitter jail” is expected sometime on Friday.
Esha deleted the offending tweet and her account will be restored in 8 hours.
Once the “free speech wing of the free speech party,” as general manager Tony Wang called it in 2012, Twitter has rapidly transformed into a draconian censor over the course of 2020. First they cracked down on Covid-19 “misinformation” based on the shifting whims of governments, then going after US President Donald Trump, to changing rules on advertising, link-sharing and even retweeting ahead of the upcoming US elections, ostensibly to protect their integrity.
Defenders of such censorship argue that Twitter is a private company, to which the First Amendment of the US Constitution – guaranteeing freedom of speech – does not apply.
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