Weeks after suspending Diamond and Silk‘s Twitter account for spreading fake news about the coronavirus pandemic, the social media giant has suspended another controversial black conservative figure over the crisis. According to The Washington Examiner, Candace Owens‘ account was suspended after she instructed Michigan residents to defy the governor’s stay-at-home directive to help slow the spread of the novel virus.
Owens’ tweet, which was removed by Twitter, said, “Apparently @GovWhitmer believes she is a duly elected dictator of a socialist country. The people of Michigan need to stand up to her. Open your businesses. Go to work. The police think she’s crazy too. They are not going to arrest 10,000,000 people for going to work.”
Twitter has ruled that the tweet violated the platform’s guidelines and her account will stay frozen until she removes the tweet. But Owens has decided to appeal the ruling from Twitter.
“I unequivocally stand by every single word of my tweet,” Owens told The Washington Examiner. “If Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez can use Twitter’s platform to encourage workers to walk out and boycott — I should be allowed to encourage lawful citizens to resume work. The only person breaking any laws is governor-turned-dictator Gretchen Whitmer, who is impoverishing millions, ignoring the votes of her state legislature, and as a result, rolling over the constitutionally protected rights of Michigan citizens.”
She also stated, “Twitter was unable or unwilling to provide me with any specific rule that I violated, which is why I have appealed their decision. While I am not an expert on Twitter TOS, I cannot see how suggesting people ought to work would be a violation of anything other than socialist reverie.”
Twitter told The Washington Examiner that Owens’s tweet violated the specific guideline that forbids the “denial of … government body recommendations to decrease an individual’s likelihood of exposure to COVID-19 with the intent to influence users into acting contrary to recommended guidance.”
The spokeswoman for the company said that Owens will need to delete the tweet for her account to be reinstated.
Just last month, Owens complained on Twitter that she and her husband were harassed by a police officer who asked them to wear a face mask in a supermarket. The officer was asking her and her husband to comply with an order to adhere to social distancing protocols put into place throughout many places in the United States.