February 7, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – As left-wing voices continue to wish death and suffering upon conservative pundit Rush Limbaugh after the announcement of his lung cancer diagnosis, Twitter’s tolerance for such comments stands in stark contrast to the company’s zero-tolerance policy on “misgendering.”
“Twitter is showing extreme bias in permitting tweets rejoicing at the severe cancer diagnosis of Rush Limbaugh yet blocking our account based on a tweet identifying a person by his biological sex rather than his preferred self representation,” LifeSiteNews co-founder and editor-in-chief John-Henry Westen said.
The veteran talk radio host shocked the conservative world Monday by announcing that he has been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer. Limbaugh said he plans to continue to “do this program as normally and as competently and as expertly as I do each and every day, because that is the source of my greatest satisfaction professionally, personally” while he undergoes treatment with a “great bunch of doctors.”
The news was met with an outpouring of support from prominent conservatives and Republicans, with President Donald Trump awarding Limbaugh the Presidential Medal of Freedom during Tuesday evening’s State of the Union address. Many on the Left responded with contempt, however, expressing delight at Limbaugh’s misfortune and even wishing a painful death on him:
Almost every minute of Rush’s adult life has been spent purposely making the world worse. He’s a racist, sexist, greedy, hateful man who has sown fear and violence with every dollar he’s made. There is absolutely no question whatsoever that the world is better without him in it.
— Reza Aslan (@rezaaslan) February 4, 2020
Rush Limbaugh has spend decades spewing dangerous anti-Black racism.
Now he has cancer…
I know we shouldn't celebrate one's misfortunes….
but
#PartyOverHere pic.twitter.com/NVI1mVg2hW
— Tariq Nasheed ���� (@tariqnasheed) February 3, 2020
Prayers for Rush
Please God, kill the bastard slowly and painfully. https://t.co/zH0u5WEE6o
— Pants McShirt (@pantsmcshirt) February 3, 2020
Good.
I’d dance on his grave. He’s been one of the most cynical, destructive forces in American public life for almost 30 years.
He was Rupert Murdoch in this country before Fox News.
He’s poison & we shouldn’t pretend like he’s anything other than what he’s been.
— Ellsworth J. Abercrombie IV (@AnyDemIn2020) February 3, 2020
“I've never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure”
Your time is coming you rabid vile white supremacist trash bag.
— The Left Independent (@Bboone24Brandon) February 3, 2020
All these tweets and more remain live as of February 6, despite the fact that Twitter’s own rules forbid “wishing, hoping or calling for serious harm on a person or group of people,” with “Hoping that someone dies as a result of a serious disease, e.g., ‘I hope you get cancer and die,’” as one of its own examples of “hateful conduct.” While most of its Hateful Conduct Policy is framed in terms of racial, sexual, or religious discrimination, they also state that “individuals do not need to be a member of a specific protected category for us to take action.”
By contrast, Twitter has censored numerous accounts for respectfully disputing left-wing orthodoxy. Last December, Twitter locked LifeSiteNews’ account for tweeting a link to the story, “Trans activist Jonathan ‘Jessica’ Yaniv ‘shocked … confused’ gynecologist won’t see him.” Twitter called it a “violation” of its rules but didn’t specify which one. LifeSite appealed the decision, but its main Twitter account remains locked to this day.
The Yaniv incident was just one of many examples of Twitter cracking down on conservative and pro-family voices on the grounds that referring to someone by his actual sex rather than his “gender identity” is automatically “hateful” and therefore forbidden.
Twitter has a long record of bans and suspensions affecting non-violent, non-hateful, non-obscene tweets from right-of-center perspectives, while Twitter insiders have admitted to intentionally targeting conservative accounts and topics. Nor is Twitter’s double-standard anything new, with the platform tolerating left-wing or anti-family content ranging from calls to “eradicate” Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway to “discussions of … attraction toward minors.”