Twitter suspended Matt Walsh of The Daily Wire on Friday over posts asserting that a number of notable transgender individuals who identify as women are biologically men.
The social media giant suspended Walsh for 12 hours for tweets countering the gender identity of a number of transgender people, including Jeopardy champion Amy Schneider and University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas. However, the 12-hour timer will not start until he deletes the tweets he was suspended for.
"The greatest female Jeopardy champion of all time is a man," Walsh said in a Dec. 30 tweet, according to The Daily Wire. "The top female college swimmer is a man. The first female four star admiral in the Public Health Service is a man. Men have dominated female high school track and the female MMA circuit. The patriarchy wins in the end."
In another tweet, Walsh told his more than 769,000 followers, "I am not referring to an individual person as if she is two people. Everyone else can run around sounding like maniacs if they want but I will not be participating. No thank you."
Twitter's hateful conduct policy prohibits users from promoting "violence" against an individual or "threatening" them on the basis of "race, ethnicity, national origin, caste, sexual orientation and gender identity."
The policy's rationale says that the platform offers everyone the right to "the power to create and share ideas and information, and to express their opinions and beliefs without barriers."
"Free expression is a human right – we believe that everyone has a voice, and the right to use it," the policy reads. "Our role is to serve the public conversation, which requires representation of a diverse range of perspectives."
Walsh announced his suspension during a Friday night appearance on Fox News' "Tucker Carlson Tonight," just minutes after he received the notification, and accused Twitter of stifling speech because the platform cannot "engage intellectually."
Matt Walsh On Tucker Carlson Following His Twitter Suspension pic.twitter.com/hR3UkQjS4h
— Amanda (@AmandaPresto) January 8, 2022
"I just found out five minutes ago, just before we went on the air, that I just got suspended on Twitter because I pointed out that biological males are men," Walsh said. "And, this to me is all part of the game here. That this is what leftism is and if you criticize it then they’re gonna shut you down because they realize—it’s not like they can engage intellectually. It’s not like they can defend, intellectually, any of the examples that you just played."
Walsh is just the latest user to receive a Twitter suspension over comments about transgender individuals and gender identity.
Conservative commentator Allie Beth Stuckey was suspended in August after she referred to transgender weightlifter Laurel Hubbard as a man.
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