Twitter Removes Evidence of Blue Check Support for Mass Murder

Apr 26

Alejandra Caraballo surfaced evidence that MMA fighter Jake Shields asked his followers if they supported executions for trans people and their supporters. Many did. Now Twitter has hidden the evidence.

by Evan Urquhart

This morning on Twitter a post from Alejandra Caraballo began to circulate widely. It showed a Tweet by MMA fighter Jake Shields asking his followers, “Would you support public executions of anyon who helps a child transition? This would include doctors, therapists, teachers, guidance counselors, etc.” Caraballo’s initial post also included the responses, by blue-checked Twitter accounts, all saying that they would, in fact, support the murder of therapists, doctors, and teachers.

Would you support public executions of anyone who helps a child transition? This would include doctors, therapists, teachers, guidance counselors, etc. — screenshot from Caraballo’s Twitter account

Twitter removed the posts, presumably because advocating for mass murder is still against the TOS. They also removed the evidence. Tweets, including Caraballo’s, that contained a collage of screenshots including the question and the affirmative answers. Those tweets now show only a blank panel. Asked to comment, Caraballo responded over text message:

Twitter is censoring posts calling attention to violent rhetoric from users of the site. This isn’t the first time, as Trust and Safety Head Ella Irwin responded to a prior post about Hitler memes and defended pictures of Hitler. It’s clear that the moderation policy is now Calvinball with anything that might embarrass or shame Twitter being subjected to arbitrary censorship through the targeted removal of images showing severe content policy violations by users expressing concern.

Caraballo speculated that the involvemenet of Ella Irwin may have been a connecting factor, as both her own post today and an earlier example of a blanked out image were Tweets where Irwin was tagged directly by concerned users attempting to find relief after the normal reporting process failed to result in their removal.

Twitter’s owner, Elon Musk, has long presented himself as a champion of free speech, and contrasted that approach with the site’s previous ownership. His changes at the company have included reversing bans of accounts that engaged in hate-fueled harassment, while at the same time banning journalists for reporting, including one incident as recently as last week. In the interest of preserving this information, we are including links to the internet archive of Jake Shield’s posts and the responses here and here as well as screenshots of the tweets as captured by Caraballo. While some of the accounts pictured have been suspended, not all have been and Shields himself has not been sanctioned by Twitter for tweeting in support of public executions of people who support gender-affirming medicine.