Dear Twitter,

I don’t believe my Tweet condones or celebrates violence, or breaks any of your rules.

I was making the point that a hyperbolic post on Parler discussing hanging people for treason isn’t actually “violence” in the sense that you mean it because it must be ordered by a court of law and usually decided by juries. For those that were enemies of the United States, that was the official punishment.

There were surely many Americans very sad and angry at losing their beloved President Lincoln. Immediately prosecuting everyone involved and giving the most serious penalties provides closure and can help lessen tensions among the citizens. When the government is prosecuting people who commit capital crimes, they don’t need to take it out on each other.

It’s definitely not violence that can be imitated because the crime of treason must be decided via a court. I was also not glorifying the people who killed Lincoln. I believe it was a tragedy, I was just explaining history and including an old historically accurate picture. If you are erasing history, you should be worried.

Just as a comparison, the severed head of Trump that you can easily find on Twitter is very different because that would have been done by a mob. No judge in the US has ever ordered a decapitation.

I understand there is a slippery slope, but I believe you should also take down all the the Antifa accounts, which organize violent riots on social media, and the severed heads of Trump, and the many posts saying Republicans are Nazis who need to be sent to re-education camps, and so much more, before you get to my historically accurate tweet.

There is so much shame and encouraging of violence towards Republicans in the world. It seems that calling Republicans racist, Nazis or fascists is perfectly allowed on Twitter. I hope you can see how calling about a majority of the country fascists would encourage violence. The censorship is extremely selective.

More recently, when people say that objecting to the election certification is insurrection is another a way to encourage violence. It takes the legal process of certifying votes and turns it into a crime against the United States!

That’s so backwards it’s Orwellian. That insane idea is of course allowed on Twitter, since it’s been said some in Congress, and echoed by the media. I hope you can see how calling people in Congress or in the state legislatures insurrectionists for doing their job to ensure only legal votes are counted surely encourages violence.

Doing censorship is a very difficult challenge. I don’t envy your task. Thanks for reading my reply!

Given that you’ve already hidden my Tweet, it seems overkill that you would also block me from accessing Twitter while I wait for you to review my appeal. You are punishing even the innocent.

I have filed this appeal with Twitter, and we’ll see what happens. Their appeal box only holds 160 characters, so I sent them a link to this post. Imagine being on trial in a courtroom and being told you can old say 25 words in your defense.

Twitter Response:

Our support team has reviewed your account and it appears we made an error. We’ve determined there was no violation and have restored your account to full functionality.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate you taking the time to submit your appeal request to us.