Glenn Reynolds, the University of Tennessee law professor and USA TODAY contributor known as Instapundit, had his Twitter account suspended after telling motorists to run over any rioters blocking them on the roadways in Charlotte, North Carolina.
As Twitchy noted, sure, Twitter is a private company and can suspend whomever it wants, but as we’ve seen before, conservatives are known targets of Twitter’s delete button courtesy of its safe space-ensuring Trust and Safety Commission. They’ve gone after the likes of Robert Stacy McCain, conservative actor Adam Baldwin, and of course, the “dangerous faggot” himself, Milo Yiannopoulos, whose incessant use of his constitutional free speech earned him a ban for life. And now @Instapundit can add his name to the "Twitter Censors Conservatives" hall of fame with this tweet, screen capped for eternity:
At his Instapundit blog, Reynolds defended the tweet soon after he was locked out of his account:
Sorry, blocking the interstate is dangerous, and trapping people in their cars is a threat. Driving on is self-preservation, especially when we've had mobs destroying property and injuring and killing people. But if Twitter doesn't like me, I'm happy to stop providing them with free content.
As noted by the Knoxville News Sentinel, another publication where he’s a contributor, Reynolds stated:
I’ve always been a supporter of free speech and peaceful protest. I fully support people protesting police actions, and I’ve been writing in support of greater accountability for police for years.
But riots aren’t peaceful protest. And locking interstates and trapping people in their cars is not peaceful protest — it’s threatening and dangerous, especially against the background of people rioting, cops being injured, civilian-on-civilian shootings, and so on. I wouldn’t actually aim for people blocking the road, but I wouldn’t stop because I’d fear for my safety, as I think any reasonable person would.
"Run them down" perhaps didn’t capture this fully, but it’s Twitter, where character limits stand in the way of nuance.
By mid-Thursday morning, Reynolds account was reinstated by cutting a deal with the social media giant as he explained in the following tweet:
Administrators at UT where Reynolds is a professor of law are investigating the matter. College of Law Dean Melanie D. Wilson said the tweet was an “irresponsible use of his platform” and condemned Reynold’s “violent” directive. Yet, she said she supports the “peaceful disobedience” of the rioters destroying Charlotte and injuring people:
The university is committed to academic freedom, freedom of speech, and diverse viewpoints, all of which are important for an institution of higher education and the free exchange of ideas. My colleagues and I in the university’s leadership support peaceful disobedience and all forms of free speech, but we do not support violence or language that encourages violence.
Reactions from @Instapundit followers were swift, with some reminding everyone that Twitter routinely blocks conservatives while leaving millions of accounts that threaten rape and spew racism to continue unmolested, while others used real world examples to prove Reynolds' point:
Hey, Twitter, you're free to run your business as you see fit, but we're just looking for some consistency.
