Babylon Bee's Twitter account suspended.
From their email:
Readers of The Bee,
In case you hadn't heard, Twitter suspended our account yesterday. In an email to us, they claimed we violated their rules against "platform manipulation and spam." The email included a warning that that if we tried to open another account, that new account would be suspended, too.
We published screenshots of the email and our suspended Twitter page, and called on our followers to make some noise. We started trending almost immediately and Twitter responded by reinstating us, saying we'd been suspended "by mistake." So we're back on Twitter, at least for the time being. But we share the concerns of others who've rightly observed that these "mistakes" tend to work in one direction.
We're grateful to have followers who aren't afraid to speak up and hold these big tech companies accountable. But there are no guarantees. We couldn't be sure Twitter would reinstate our account. And we can't know if they will the next time they make a "mistake." But we can do our best to prepare for a worst-case scenario. At least we can with your help.
When we first launched our subscription service, the primary reason we gave for supporting us was to help us become less dependent on big tech companies. We explained:
We depend on Facebook and Twitter to drive traffic, and Google Ads to monetize it. Without these networks, we'd have no revenue to cover our expenses. And as you're probably aware, none of these companies are friendly to Christians or conservatives. In fact, that's a severe understatement. The control these companies exercise—and the outright hostility they display toward those with more traditional views and values—has us deeply concerned about our future as a publisher of Christian satire. But here's the thing: If just a small fraction of our readers become paid subscribers, we'd have enough funding to survive without running ads, effectively eliminating our dependence on these big tech companies.
Thanks to you—our paid subscribers—we're in a much stronger position than we would be otherwise. The more subscribers we have, the less we have to worry about our dependence on Twitter and the other big tech companies.
From our whole team, thank you for your loyal readership and financial support. You guys truly are the lifeblood of the Bee.
If you'd like to increase your impact, please consider upgrading to the next tier. All you have to do is log in, click "manage subscription" on your dashboard, then "upgrade subscription" and make a selection.
Seth Dillon
CEO |
