Media top headlines June 7
CNN’s Brian Stelter getting panned for interview with Jen Psaki, the New York Times being criticized for ‘biased’ tweet against Joe Manchin, and Peter Daszak getting cited by media fact-checkers and Facebook round out today’s top media headlines.
Conservative commentator Mike Davis sounded off on the bias of Big Tech on Monday after Twitter briefly suspended him for comparing CNN's Brian Stelter to "The Gimp" in the film "Pulp Fiction," flagging it as a violation of their "hateful conduct policy."
"Dear @TwitterSafety, you really put Big Tech critic @wupton in @Twitter jail for comparing CNN's @brianstelter to The Gimp in Pulp Fiction?" Davis tweeted Sunday night. "I'd be (very) upset if I were The Gimp, as well. But you know The Gimp's a fictional character, right? Must have been a fake complaint."
Twitter lifted the suspension of Will Upton, the author of the Stelter critique, shortly after he filed an appeal. But the platform still chose to suspend Davis for defending Upton's tweet. Twitter let Davis back on the platform on Monday afternoon.
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"We took action on the account referenced in error," a Twitter spokesperson said in a statement to Fox News Monday afternoon. "This has been reversed, and access to the account has been reinstated. We have a dedicated appeals process for account holders who believe we took action in error."
Republican strategist Andrew Surabian made note of the strange timeline of events.
TWITTER DECLARES ACCESS TO ITS PLATFORM A ‘HUMAN RIGHT’ AMID CENSORSHIP OF CONSERVATIVES
Davis told Fox News that he was "amused and annoyed at the same time" about the suspension. He said he didn't understand why his tweet was problematic, but added that he had a good idea as to why he was on Twitter's "hit list."
"I’m clearly on their target list because I launched the Internet Accountability Project and we’ve been highly successful in getting conservative lawmakers and influencers to change their position on antitrust on Big Tech," he reasoned.
Davis is founder and president of the Internet Accountability Project (IAP), which is described as "an advocacy organization fighting to rein in Big Tech."
Republican lawmakers, some of whom have introduced legislation to "bust up" Big Tech, have accused Twitter of "shadow-banning" influential conservatives and Republican leaders. Most notably, Twitter permanently suspended the account of former President Donald Trump following the January 6 Capitol riots.
Yet, as FOX Business reported exclusively in May, a network of pro-Iran Twitter accounts got numerous anti-Semitic hashtags trending amid escalating violence between Israel and Hamas.
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Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., was among those who pointed out Twitter's seemingly skewed priorities.
"Twitter is fine with allowing CCP propaganda, but censors conservatives for making jokes," he wrote.
Davis predicted that his recent Twitter blackout will only help his cause.
"When Big Tech does this I don’t think they realize all it does is it raises our profile, which makes our fight against Big Tech more effective," he said.
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