Laura Loomer—a popular conservative voice on social media—has had her account suspended from Twitter for the duration of the election. The Jewish-American is known for her in-your-face investigative journalism and controversial opinions. She often publicly confronts political figures concerning policy and demands answers. Many refer to her as “far-right” or “alt-right.” She also boasts over 240,000 followers on Twitter. For full disclosure, it’s worth noting that I am a registered Democrat and do not share Laura Loomer’s politics or many of her beliefs.
That being said, I’ve been following her on Twitter for about a year now. Anyone who visits her account will first notice that she’s a Republican supporter of President Donald Trump. Users can exercise discretion on whether or not to block her from the start. I followed her series of reporting from Israel when the U.S. Embassy was moved to Jerusalem, which I found to be interesting and different.
While I do a fair amount of eye-rolling whilst scrolling her page, it has never once crossed my mind that she’s dangerous or needs to be silenced. Then again, I’m a grown woman who can acknowledge that free thinking exists. No amount of exposure to social media mobs, talking heads, or clever sound bytes have swayed me from my political beliefs. It’s also never crossed my mind to lead a charge against conservative voices on social media.
I’m in total agreement that it’s important to have terms of service for social media platforms. I agree that hate speech and attacks should be regulated by tech giants. I agree that true “fake news” should be removed. However, I also believe that users should be notified and offending posts deleted—not entire accounts.
I reached out to Laura for comment, and she informed me that Twitter didn’t give her a specific reason for suspending her account for 7 days, they simply cited so-called violations of Twitter rules. “This is election meddling and censorship of Conservatives,” she said—adding that she warned people. She has confronted Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in the past about censoring conservative voices. Loomer actually has a pretty entertaining segment to her shenanigans called #Loomered, where she approaches public figures and demands answers to hard-hitting questions.
You don’t have to be a conservative to advocate for the constitutional right to free speech. While Twitter is a private enterprise, it’s not a good look to see them silencing Americans. I’ve come across so much controversial rhetoric from “far-left” commentators as well. For example, crazy Tariq Nasheed advocates for reparations and attacks every ethnic group from white folks to Native Americans. He consistently speaks out against interracial relationships and uses racist and offensive language. Ironically, he’s followed on Twitter by former President Barack Obama.
Twitter needs to reinstate Laura Loomer’s account and explain exactly what rule she broke. For her views, her account was also unverified some time ago. I’d also like to see some of these self-righteous Democrats band together for the rights of Native American women and addressing poverty rather than worry about what Laura Loomer is talking about. If you don’t like her, block her.
