Actor James Woods will not delete his tweet even though it may mean being prevented from using his Twitter account in the near future. The social media giant found a tweet of his from a few months ago to be 'misleading' and in violation of Twitter's rules and so his account was locked for access. 

The actor speaking to AP said he wanted an open discourse and that this incident was dangerous for free speech. He also observed: “I wish this were about an unknown Twitter user so that I could be even more passionate about it. This is not about a celebrity being muzzled. This is about an American being silenced — one tweet at a time.”

Below is the tweet which earned Woods this reaction from Twitter

The tweet was posted July 20 and includes a hoax meme attributed to the Democrats and it encouraged men not to vote in the midterm elections. Woods only recently got an email from Twitter informing him that the tweet “has the potential to be misleading in a way that could impact an election.” The email also clarified that Woods could use his account again if he deletes the tweet.

Speaking to AP on Sunday, the actor insisted that he wouldn't be deleting it.  “Free speech is free speech — it’s not Jack Dorsey’s version of free speech,” Woods said aiming these words at Twitter Chief Executive Jack Dorsey.  "The irony is, Twitter accused me of affecting the political process, when in fact, their banning of me is the truly egregious interference," Woods said. "Because now, having your voice smothered is much more disturbing than having your vocal chords slit. If you want to kill my free speech, man up and slit my throat with a knife, don't smother me with a pillow."

Woods, as you notice, also mentioned in this tweet that the campaign was "not likely" to be "authentic" but there could be a distinct possibility. The actor also claimed that since he enjoys a huge following of over 1.7 million he was being targetted singularly. His original tweet had been retweeted by his girlfriend and many fans had also done the same, while their accounts were safe from any punitive action, Woods was the one on whom the axe fell.

The two-time Oscar nominee is a vocal conservative, a Trump supporter and has been known to support causes like guns rights. This is not the first time Woods' political views have earned him such a repercussion. Earlier, the star alleged that because he chose to voice his opinions on the social media website, his career graph which saw him act in hits like 'Casino', 'Vampires' etc. saw him being blacklisted. This year in July, Woods' agent too refused to represent him anymore saying he was "feeling patriotic".

Twitter, meanwhile, has a huge task on its hands since they are being increasingly pressurized to monitor campaigns of hate speech or misleading quotes which could have the potential of affecting elections offline. The social media giant confessed that it was a job which would see not everybody pleased as it has in the past faced criticism for being biased against right-wing and conservative parties. “We can’t build a service that is subjective just to the whims of what we personally believe,” Dorsey had told NBC News in an exclusive interview previously. Dorsey said the company has “to put the safety of individuals first in every single thing that we do, and we need to enforce our rules and also evolve our rules around that.”