Twitter has imposed a blockade on all content from The Epoch Times without explanation, raising further concerns about freedom of speech on the platform.
Beginning on the evening of July 28, the platform put up a warning on all links from The Epoch Times. A click on a link would direct users to a page titled “Warning: this link may be unsafe” which prompts users to return to the previous page.
“The link you are trying to access has been identified by Twitter or our partners as being potentially spammy or unsafe,” read the warning, which cited the platform’s URL policy.
The notice said that the link could fall into any of four categories: “malicious links that could steal personal information or harm electronic devices”; “spammy links that mislead people or disrupt their experience”; “violent or misleading content that could lead to real-world harm,” or content that “if posted directly on Twitter, are a violation of the Twitter Rules.”
The platform has not responded to multiple requests from The Epoch Times for clarification.
We are aware that Twitter has marked all links to https://t.co/copOc5TSA6 as "unsafe." We believe this is a mistake and we have submitted a review to @TwitterSupport. pic.twitter.com/UyFqoiaUkq
— The Epoch Times (@EpochTimes) July 29, 2022
The Epoch Times was founded in 2000 by Chinese Americans who fled communist China and sought to create an independent media outlet to bring uncensored and truthful information to the world.
At least 10 staff members for The Epoch Times were arrested that year in China, with one editor-in-chief spending a decade in prison.
While operating outside of China, the media outlet has remained a consistent target of attacks from the Chinese regime over the past two decades. The printing press of the Hong Kong edition of The Epoch Times has suffered a series of violent break-ins, including arson, over the years, viewed as attempts by Beijing to intimidate the publication.
Major Chinese state media, by contrast, remain accessible on the platform as of the press time.
Among the first to be affected by Twitter’s blockade was Eliza Bleu, a trafficking survivor. Bleu shared about how abusers groomed her by preying on her vulnerabilities on EpochTV’s “American Thought Leaders” program in an interview that premiered at 7:30 p.m. ET on Thursday.
Bleu tried to repost the link after watching the interview, and to her surprise and dismay, found that she “couldn’t even click on the link.”
“I’m pretty disheartened that the interview link was labeled as unsafe, because it’s not unsafe,” she told The Epoch Times.
“By watching the interview, anyone can tell it’s pretty educational,” she said. “I wasn’t talking about anything that wasn’t factual. I was just really just trying to educate, raise awareness, and bring attention to the issue.” She added that the link seemed to be accessible when the interview first aired but became blocked sometime afterward.
Twitter’s warning page allows users to proceed to the actual Epoch Times link if they click on the word “continue” at the very bottom of the page.
Republican lawmakers have decried the move as an act of censorship.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) on Thursday called out Twitter for blocking all links to The Epoch Times’ website.
“.@Twitter is blocking all links to @EpochTimes, including a story about a human trafficking survivor, and labeling them as ‘spammy’ and ‘unsafe,’ Twitter must explain itself for this outrageous act of censorship,” he wrote in a tweet.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) described Twitter’s action as “alarming.”
“Twitter is censoring @EpochTimes under the guise of ‘unsafe’ speech. Remember what happened the last time corporate media and big tech tried to censor my investigation on Hunter Biden corruption?” he wrote. “The truth always prevails.”
Jeffrey Tucker, founder of the Brownstone Institute think tank and a contributor for The Epoch Times, also expressed his shock.
“The @EpochTimes, the entire media complex, has been declared by Twitter to be unsafe. This stuns me, even though I thought I was beyond shock at this point,” he wrote.
From The Epoch Times
