Steve Bannon, former advisor to President Donald Trump, has called for the arrest of Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter, for covering up the president’s posts.
The social media platform placed warnings and flags across six of Trump’s 16 tweets yesterday, arguing that the content was “controversial” and could be misleading in light of an election still in progress, as the posts violated the site’s policy of civic integrity.
Bannon smoked during an episode of his War Room podcast on law enforcement: Pandemic and said Twitter suppressed the President’s speech. His comments were first made public by the media watchdog Media Matters for America.
“They are toppling the President of the United States,” Bannon, who served as a top White House aide for eight months in 2017, said during the broadcast. “If the President of the United States does not call Bill Barr now, today, at this moment – what is it? Section 232 of the Defense Act – and sends U.S. marshals to San Francisco and arrests Jack Dorsey today.
“I knew this moment would come. When a punk like Jack Dorsey would bring down and suppress the commander in chief’s freedom of speech.”
Podcast co-host Raheem Kassam, who also posted on Twitter on Wednesday for trying to distribute one of the President’s restricted tweets, agreed with Bannon. He said U.S. authorities should storm Twitter headquarters to gather evidence. (Because of COVID-19, Twitter employees around the world still work from home).
Kassam told the audience, “I mean right now. The Twitter headquarters – not only arrest Jack Dorsey, but confiscate every single device there. Take that thing off. You have influence on this choice. You call it out for a side. This cannot be allowed to happen.”
Twitter was contacted by Washington Newsday for comment.
Bannon himself was arrested in August for allegedly defrauding hundreds of thousands of donors of a fundraising campaign called “We Build the Wall” that raised over $25 million. He pleaded not guilty and was released on a $5 million bond, CNBC reported. Together with three co-defendants, he is scheduled to stand trial on May 24 next year.
Yesterday, Trump repeatedly made false claims about the ongoing ballot counts through his social media accounts, triggering enforcement through Facebook.
The president, who was expected to complain about the rigging of the ballot box, hinted that his democratic opposition was trying to steal the election and spread the unfounded conspiracy that the ballots would be “secretly thrown away.
When it turned out that Joe Biden was taking the lead, Trump tweeted his campaign and “claimed” Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina and possibly Michigan. A warning was quickly posted by Twitter saying that official sources had not called the races at that time.
Biden, who apparently did not have tweets from social media platforms flagged yesterday, is expected to take Michigan. “Once this election is over … it’s time for us to do what we have always done as Americans: Put the tough rhetoric of the campaign behind us,” he twittered….
