Steve Bannon says Trump should arrest 'punk' Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey for censoring POTUS' election day tweets
A former adviser to President Donald Trump, Steve Bannon, has slammed Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, blaming him for "taking down" the president in one of the most contentious elections in the history of the United States after the social media platform slapped censor labels on Bannon's ex-boss' tweets. Six of Trump's 16 tweets on November 3 were covered by Twitter with warning labels, which said that the content was "disputed" or "misleading" especially after Trump tried to prematurely declare himself the winner in his election night address to the nation when millions of duly cast votes were still being counted in a number of battleground states. The warning labels in question were to let users know that the posts in question were in violation of the site's civic integrity policy.
For instance, when Trump wrote in multiple tweets, "We have claimed, for Electoral Vote purposes, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (which won’t allow legal observers) the State of Georgia, and the State of North Carolina, each one of which has a BIG Trump lead. Additionally, we hereby claim the State of Michigan if, in fact... there was a large number of secretly dumped ballots as has been widely reported!" Twitter covered one up with the label, "Some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process" and another had the disclaimer underneath which read, "Officials sources may not have called the race when this was Tweeted."
.....there was a large number of secretly dumped ballots as has been widely reported!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 4, 2020
As Biden pulled ahead in the presidential race, edging close to the threshold of securing the 270 electoral votes needed to win the election, Bannon fumed about the censorship of the president by Twitter while speaking during an episode of his podcast 'War Room: Pandemic'. He said that Twitter was suppressing the president's speech.
"They're taking down the president of the United States," Bannon, who served in the White House for eight months in 2017, said. "If the president of the United States does not call Bill Barr now, today, this moment — what is it? Section 232 of the Defense Act — and send US marshals out to San Francisco and arrest Jack Dorsey today. I knew this moment was going to come. When some punk like Jack Dorsey is going to take down and suppress the free speech of the commander-in-chief."
Podcast co-host Raheem Kassam, whose post was flagged by Twitter on November 4 as he tried to circulate one of the president's restricted tweets, agreed with Bannon. "I mean right now. Twitter HQ — don't just arrest Jack Dorsey, seize every piece of equipment in there. Take the thing down. They are impacting this election. They are calling it for one side. This cannot be allowed to happen," he added.
Meanwhile, Biden did not appear to have any tweets flagged by social media platforms on or following Election Day mostly because he seemed to be choosing his words very carefully in every tweet he posted. "Once this election is finalized... it will be time for us to do what we've always done as Americans: To put the harsh rhetoric of the campaign behind us," one of his tweets read.
Once this election is finalized and behind us, it will be time for us to do what we've always done as Americans: To put the harsh rhetoric of the campaign behind us.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) November 4, 2020