Twitter allows Taliban but takes action against Press Secretary of Florida Governor

The press secretary for Ron DeSantis is facing punishment from Twitter staff over a dispute with the reporting of Associated Press.

The debate between a government official and a member of the media had the big tech platform taking a side. In Twitter’s eyes, Pushaw, working for the Florida Governor, wasn’t allowed to dispute what she saw as media misinformation.

The fact of the matter is that Twitter’s Trust & Safety deemed it appropriate to lock out the Press Secretary of Ron DeSantis for twelve hours, over claims of “abusive behavior.”

This comes in the same week that Jack Dorsey’s company approved allowing the Taliban to stay on the platform.

What we must start with is the point and counterpoint in dispute.

• Point: On August 18th, 2021 Brendan Farrington of the Associated Press put out a story that claimed that the top donor for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Citadel hedge fund, created impropriety. Farrington paints a connection between $10.75 million in donations to a committee that supports DeSantis, to Citadel’s $15.9 million in shares of Regeneron. The company behind an antibody treatment program being used in Florida.
• Counterpoint: Politifact rated Farrington’s implication as Mostly False given how overblown the vested interest Citadel actually has in Regeneron, was made out to be.

Given the circumstances above: Christina Pushaw, Press Secretary of Ron DeSantis, took to Twitter to dispute the claims made in Farrington’s piece.

The situation is outlined in this letter written today by the COO of Associated Press, Daisy Veerasingham.

“And, even days later, she continued to issue threatening and assaulting tweets,” the letter says, misleadingly.

Now hold on.

Pushaw deleted her “drag them” comment (directed at the AP story and not Farrington’s personal account) because she didn’t want it to be misinterpreted.

Pushaw told the Associated Press: “As soon as Farrington told me he received threats, I tweeted that nobody should be threatening anyone, that is completely unacceptable. I also urged him to report any threats to police.”

With regards to her “put him on blast” statement, Christina Pushaw immediately responded to that as well two days ago.

"I deleted it only because the deadline of 8am was no longer relevant after Brendan Farrington informed me at 10pm that he would not fix the misleading headline. At that point there was no reason to stay silent while his health misinformation flooded the country."

Twitter confirmed to Fox News that DeSantis Press Secretary Christina Pushaw was locked out for 12 hours over “abusive behavior” for arguing with the Associated Press.

But they can’t cite specific tweets. There’s a reason for that.

At the time of writing it’s 8:00 PM on August 20th, 2021. The tweets in question are several days old and have been deleted.

Per Twitter’s own policies, the fact that they’ve been deleted already makes it inappropriate to take acting action Christina Pushaw.

I cite the case of LeBron James where Twitter decided that they won't take action against people who deleted their tweets in advance.

For that reason they need to bring back Christina Pushaw tonight.