Raging antisemite David Icke has finally been banned from Twitter.
But it wasn’t his antisemitism that did it.
Twitter has banned the account of British conspiracy theorist David Icke.
“The account referenced has been permanently suspended for violating Twitter’s rules regarding Covid misinformation,” a spokesman told the BBC.
The action comes six months after Facebook and YouTube took similar action, saying Mr Icke had posted misleading claims about the pandemic.
The 68-year-old had about 382,000 followers on Twitter.
His recent posts had included attacks on Prime Minister Boris Johnson, US infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci and the philanthropist Bill Gates.
In a blog, Mr Icke said was banned for a tweet he had made about plans to pilot city-wide coronavirus testing in Liverpool.
But over recent months he has made false claims such as suggesting that 5G mobile phone networks were linked to the spread of the virus, and that a Jewish group had also been involved.
—
Twitter’s rules do not include a general ban on misinformation.
But in July, it would not allow any tweets about Covid-19 that were “claims of fact, demonstrably false or misleading, and likely to cause harm”. It added that accounts that repeatedly broke this rule would be permanently removed.
That the social media platforms would ban Icke for coronavirus misinformation and not rampant antisemitism speaks volumes; I wouldn’t consider this to be the scales of justice at work.
