Twitter has (again) suspended the Vox account for "hate speech"

The Twitter account of the Spanish political party VOX has been suspended for "breaching the rules that prohibit hate speech." The social network took the measure after the publication of a tweet in which they link immigration with crime, and they talk about an alleged "Islamization of Catalonia."

While Abascal has dedicated a thread to talk about the "censorship imposed by technological millionaires" as the reasons behind the blockade, Twitter has explained that its rules are in line with the Declaration of Human Rights and that "incite fear against a group of people due to his origin or nationality, he has no place in his service."

It is the second time that Twitter suspends Vox

The rules and policies of Twitter in relation to behavior inciting hatred expressed that:

"We prohibit targeting individuals and groups with content intended to incite fear or spread fear stereotypes about a protected category, including stating that members of a protected category are more likely to engage in illegal or dangerous activities, eg "Everyone [members of a religious group] are terrorists".

The tweet has earned VOX a temporary suspension of the account, which, according to the party's deputy communications secretary, will last six days and 22 hours. The first time this happened was in January 2020, when the account was also suspended for "incitement to hatred" after accusing the PSOE of "promoting pedophilia."

In addition to the removal of the tweet, the suspension of the Vox account means that you can only browse Twitter being limited to only sending Direct Messages to your followers, excluding tweets, retweets, and 'likes'.

From Twitter, they commented to Xataka that these suspension periods can last more or less depending on the history of the behavior of an affected account. The week of limitation to the VOX account is a problem especially in the middle of the Catalan election campaign, and according to Europa Press the party has plans to file a lawsuit against Twitter Spain for "censoring your account to influence the next elections."

Twitter has been constantly updating its usage rules in recent years, and they were recently expanded to " ban content that dehumanizes a group of people because of their religion, caste, age, disability, serious illness, national origin, race or ethnicity. ".

According to experts, Twitter's terms of service empower the company to suspend or close accounts, and although the Spanish Constitution protects the right to freedom of expression in Article 20, "the courts have recognized that the act of closing an account of a social network does not limit that right since there are other networks and ways of getting the message across ".