Project Veritas Suspended From Twitter For Publishing Documents Exposing Pinterest’s Alleged Political Bias
Investigative reporter and Head of Project Veritas James O’Keefe has claimed that the conservative investigative journalism group was temporarily suspended from Twitter due to their coverage of internal Pinterest communications.
On the morning of June 12th, O’Keefe took to his personal Twitter account to announce that Project Veritas had been temporarily suspended from the platform, claiming that it was due to the group’s exposé of Pinterest’s alleged censorship practices:
Breaking News: Twitter has decided that investigative journalism is in violation of their terms of service – @Project_Veritas has been temporarily suspended from posting for tweeting internal communications from @Pinterest which show them calling @benshapiro a “white supremacist” pic.twitter.com/eJNDWEfanf
— James O’Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) June 12, 2019
The temporary suspension came one day after Project Veritas publicly published documents allegedly obtained from an insider at Pinterest which show that the social media website was actively attempting to suppress pro-life and Christian materials, such as Bible verses and a link to the pro-life group LiveAction.org’s website:
Documents a Pinterest insider gave Project Veritas appear to show code, guidelines, and the actual employees making censorship decisions, including specific actions taken against pro-life group Live Action. https://t.co/jjrdrWTCG6 pic.twitter.com/DXceAxK6ME
— Project Veritas (@Project_Veritas) June 11, 2019
Leaked Pinterest “Sensitive Terms List” includes “bible verses” and “christian easter,” Inside explains search term “christian” won’t auto-complete, others can’t trend, no notifications, or recommendations pic.twitter.com/TirWU5xyBk
— Project Veritas (@Project_Veritas) June 11, 2019
However, according to the e-mail sent to O’Keefe informing him of the suspension, Project Veritas was suspended for violating Twitter’s Private information policy, which states:
“You may not publish or post other people’s private information without their express authorization and permission. We also prohibit threatening to expose private information or incentivizing others to do so.”
O’Keefe later took issue with this reasoning, begging the question of whether Twitter is a “neutral platform or publisher w/ editorial agenda” for suspending Project Veritas for posting news worthy information:
Our @Project_Veritas account tweeted legitimately newsworthy information, part of a document leak from a Pinterest insider. Does Twitter get to decide what “private information” is with respect to journalism + news? Are they a neutral platform or publisher w/ editorial agenda? pic.twitter.com/wdxpdFfbp1
— James O’Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) June 12, 2019
As of writing, the account still appears to be suspended, as the most recent Tweet from the account was posted in the late afternoon on June 11th.
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