Deleting Trump's account was the finishing touch to "Purge Night" on social media • In Israel, too, we must be prepared for similar "purge" attempts • Opinion
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"The United Arab Emirates has reached an agreement with the Israelis and filthy Zionist agents of the United States - such as the Jewish member of the Trump administration" (Jared Kushner, HC).
This tweet was posted on September 1 from the official Twitter account of Iranian ruler Ayatollah Khamenei.
More than four months have passed since then, but as of this writing, the antisemitic tweet stands, just like Khamenei's Twitter account - a privilege denied to President Trump on Tuesday, with the permanent deletion of his Twitter account.
For Twitter founder and CEO Jack Dorsey, the Iranian dictator - who seeks to destroy Dorsey along with all Americans - is "safer" to use his platform than the free world leader.
Blocking Trump's account is almost as unfounded as Twitter's "reasons" for this extreme action.
Twitter claimed, for example, that Trump's statement that he would not appear at Biden's inauguration on January 20 "was accepted by some of his supporters as confirmation that the election was illegitimate."
By that logic, Hillary Clinton long ago had to be removed from Twitter after claiming the 2016 election was "stolen" from her.
Trump's use of the term "American patriots" to some of his supporters has also been interpreted by Twitter as "support for those who have taken violent action on Capitol Hill."
This is of course a blatant lie, as Trump referred to all his supporters, the vast majority of whom did not commit acts of violence, and although he used rhetorical rhetoric - constantly stressed that he was opposed to violence.
The deletion of Trump's account was the culmination of a "night of purges" on social media against anything that smells like conservatism or nationalism: Facebook removed the "walkaway" page that had about half a million members sharing their transition from Democratic to Republican party Trump;
Instagram (owned by Facebook) removed a "Youth for Trump" leader from last week's demonstration against the backdrop of Capitol Hill and Israeli and US flags, though he vehemently opposed violence; Itself to the censorship rules of the big high-tech companies.
At the same time, Twitter allows accounts affiliated with the violent far-left organization "Antifa" to encourage, promote and even organize violent riots.
The Soviet silence also slips into a real blow to livelihoods: a Chicago newspaper reported that Trump supporters who participated in the Capitol demonstration (not those who broke into the building) were fired from their jobs, called "Nazis," and businesses owned by them fell victim to corruption.
Republican Sen. Josh Hually has been informed that Simon & Schuster Publishing has canceled the contract with him for the publication of his book, as he dared to use his constitutional right as a senator to challenge election results.
Elected President Joe Biden this weekend created an affinity between Howley and Ted Cruz - another Republican senator who challenged the results - and Nazi propaganda minister Josef Goebbels.
Biden outlined the rationale for silence: If the opponent is a Nazi, it is imperative to silence him, and damn freedom of expression.
In the run-up to the March elections in Israel, too, we must be prepared for similar "purge" attempts against right-wingers - such as Raviv Drucker's recent call to investigate "Israel Today" and censor Prime Minister Netanyahu.
Democracy is indeed in danger, and we certainly intend to fight for it.
We will not be silenced.
