Multiple Twitter users have reported that the popular #GaysForTrump hashtag is being censored on the platform.
A GIF posted by Twitter user @PunishedSage has revealed that the Twitter hashtag does not appear in the site’s suggested searches. When you type “#GaysFor” or even “#GaysForTr” into the site’s search function, the hashtags does not appear as a recommendation, despite its popularity in the wake of the Orlando shootings.
https://twitter.com/PunishedSage/status/742881130030850052
However, less popular hashtags like #LGBTQHatesTrumpParty remain uncensored on Twitter. According to statistics by Keyhole.co, which provides social media analytics, #GaysForTrump has been posted more than seven times as often as #LGBTQHatesTrumpParty, and has had more than twice as many user impressions.
This act of censorship by the social media giant comes on the tails of Breitbart Tech editor Milo Yiannopoulos’ short suspension from Twitter, which occured after he took to the platform with anti-Islamic remarks.
In March, Yiannopoulos pressed White House Press Secretary about censorship on social media. Although Press Secretary Josh Earnest pointed out that private companies have the right to enact their own speech policies, he claimed that that President Obama “would be the first one to observe that the success of … social media and some of those social media tools is in fact predicated on the idea of freedom of expression.”
We have reached out to Twitter for comment.
Tom Ciccotta writes about Free Speech and Intellectual Diversity for Breitbart. You can follow him on Twitter @tciccotta or on Facebook. You can email him at tciccotta@breitbart.com
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