I got booted for being a Postie
Scribe fights ‘vindictive’ Twitter block
A New York Post editorial-board member has been blocked by Twitter for months in what he says is punishment for the newspaper’s decision to publish contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop hard drive.
“I think they are being spiteful,” said Michael Benjamin, 64. “Like this guy works at The Post and we’re not going to accommodate him no matter what he says.”
Benjamin, a former state assemblyman and a registered Democrat, was booted from Twitter in March after tweeting a sarcastic quip about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to his 7,200 followers.
“I’m being picked on by Twitter because I work for a conservative news outlet,” he said.
Benjamin landed in Twitter jail on March 13, when he suggested President Biden ramp up support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia.
A commenter suggested the US “wait out” Russian President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine and withhold US aid, prompting Benjamin to sarcastically reply, “Of course, only Ukrainians need die.”
Moments later, he was zapped for violating Twitter’s rules against “hateful” conduct.
“Anybody who understands English understands context and what the tweet was about. It wasn’t in any way hateful,” Benjamin said. “[Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky would probably praise it because I want the US to get more involved in helping his country.”
Flagged by ‘Karen’
Appeals to Twitter from Benjamin and an email to the company’s press office went nowhere.
“It was a bizarre misunderstanding of a tweet supporting Ukraine that Twitter’s ‘Karen’ algorithm decided was ‘hateful.’ The suspension is unjustified and the protracted appeal is vindictive. I want the matter rectified,” Benjamin wrote to the company in a March 21 email — to no avail.
Benjamin wrote about the Twitter censorship two days later, but the op-ed also went ignored.
Benjamin could be released from Twitter jail if he deletes the offending tweet — as the company initially demanded of The Post’s Hunter Biden coverage — but he has refused.
“I didn’t do anything wrong, so I am not going to apologize,” Benjamin said. “When I was in first grade, I told a kid there was no Santa Claus. His mom wanted me to apologize, and I said why should I apologize?”
Will Chamberlain, an attorney for the nonprofit Internet Accountability Project, decried the treatment of Benjamin as “Soviet.”
“Hopefully, this is something that Elon Musk will address when he takes over the company,” Chamberlain said.
Twitter has a history of selectively enforcing its terms of service against conservative voices.
A 2018 investigation from the left-leaning Vice confirmed the company “shadow banned” many prominent conservatives on its platform.
Former President Donald Trump remains blocked from using the platform, but the Taliban and Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei can still post freely.
The company also locked out The Post in October 2020 and refused to allow users to share its accurate reporting on Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop before the presidential election.