US Republican Senate candidate Sam Brown lambasts Twitter for suspending his account

Republican Senate candidate and retired US Army Capt. Sam Brown hit out at Twitter after he found out on Monday morning that his account was suspended. The Purple Heart recipient, who is competing in the Republican primary in Nevada to oust Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto in the 2022 midterm elections, lambasted the microblogging site for censorship without warning or cause. "Big Tech is launching a full-fledged attack on conservative voices, employing unequally applied 'rules' to suppress or suspend anyone with whom they disagree. They blocked my tweets as 'possibly sensitive information' during summer, then they suspended my account without explanation this morning," he was quoted as saying by Fox News. He vowed to take decisive action against Twitter stating it has messed with the wrong soldier. 

Brown also filed an appeal against the suspension of his account, to which an automatic notification from Twitter informed him that his appeal request had been received. Meanwhile, the account was later restored, with Twitter apologising for the error. Brown's account was mistakenly labelled as spam, according to Twitter, which has a system in place to discover and remove multiple automated spam accounts in bulk. It also indicated that follower and following numbers could take up to an hour to return to normal, reported Fox News. 

Brown's feud with Twitter began in the month of July, when he claimed that his tweet featuring him saluting in uniform had been flagged as "possibly sensitive content." The candidate attacked Twitter, claiming that his post was flagged as "possibly sensitive" because of his face, which was severely burnt by an IED explosion during his posting in Afghanistan in 2008. A similar warning label was placed on his campaign launch video that was posted on the platform. However, a Twitter spokesperson pushed back against the censorship allegations, telling Fox News that such warnings can be activated or removed based on the account settings of each individual user. 

Donald Trump wants Twitter to reinstate his suspended account

Meanwhile, in a separate incident, former US President Donald Trump, who was banned from Twitter and Facebook following the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, has now sought a federal judge in Florida to order Twitter and Facebook to reinstate his account. Trump sued Twitter, Facebook, and Google, as well as their CEOs, in the month of July, arguing that the companies are illegally censoring conservative voices. On October 1, the former US President filed a preliminary injunction in Miami against the microblogging site.

Image: Twitter/@ Sam Brown/ Pixabay