You’d think that Twitter would have learned by now that coddling hateful bigots just because they happen to hold high political office is a big mistake. After all, the kid-glove treatment they gave Donald Trump—which culminated in him using their platform to organize a mob to attack the U.S. Capitol in an attempted coup—didn’t work out so well.
This week, it’s far-right Arizona legislator Wendy Rogers, who tweeted out an ugly text on Sunday using the term “groomers” to smear the LGTBQ community as pedophiles—which Twitter recently announced it intended to crack down on. Ah, but those policies are only for normal people like you and me: For officeholders like Rogers, it chooses to simply hide the tweet so it cannot be retweeted or replied to.
Where the tweet appears on Rogers’ account, Twitter placed text reading: “This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about hateful conduct. However, Twitter has determined it may be in the public’s interest for the tweet to remain accessible.” Readers can then click on a “View” button to read it.
As it happens, that was Twitter’s solution for dealing with similarly transphobic tweets from Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene in July attacking Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel Levine, a transgender woman. Similarly, Twitter allowed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s tweets attacking Levine to remain up, hidden behind an identical warning.
Greene’s personal Twitter account was permanently suspended in January, but Twitter has permitted her to keep posting on the account from her congressional office.
Rogers already has a long track record of outrageous behavior. She has long indulged in antisemitic behavior on Twitter, describing George Soros as “puppet master” and describing unvaccinated people as “purebloods.” Speaking to white nationalist Nick Fuentes’ America First PAC conference in February, she told the audience:
When we do take back our God-given rights, we will bring these criminals to justice. I’ve said we need to build more gallows. If we try some of these high-level criminals, convict them, and use a newly built set of gallows, it will make an example of these traitors to our country. They have yet to be justly punished for the crimes they’ve committed.
Rogers will no doubt loudly object to Twitter’s latest action. She recently came out in ardent defense of Infowars’ Alex Jones after a Texas jury recently handed down a multimillion-dollar judgment against him for slandering the parents of the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre.
“It’s wrong what they did to Alex Jones,” she wrote. “He should be able to criticize the official story any time he wants. I hope he appeals the verdicts because the kangaroo courts already made him guilty before the trials started. Americans should help cover his bills. Sick of censorship!”