Roger Stone’s “Stone Cold Truth” account, center-left commentator Bunty King, and Sam Hyde’s comedy group Million Dollar Extreme were all permanently suspended from Twitter this week.
The new suspensions come after Twitter stripped numerous conservative commentators, including Tommy Robinson and Laura Loomer, of their verification badges last week.
Twitter users have claimed that Bunty King, who frequently exposes people on both the left and right, was likely suspended after he asked his followers to “hug” an opponent on the social network.
“This past year has been loaded with self-discovery, as I was able to interact with people from all sides of the political spectrum, allowing me to get a better idea of what I valued in terms of socio-political discourse,” declared Bunty King in an email to Breitbart Tech. “[I was suspended for] Hugs, dude, sending some unhinged butthead some hugs. A few people are playing it off as some crypto call for dogpiling, but I don’t need to be crypto; I wear my heart on my sleeve and have nothing to hide. I’m proud of the person I’ve come to be and hope to inspire others to live as authentically as I can.”
The suspension of Stone Cold Truth comes after Roger Stone’s own suspension in October, after he insulted CNN anchors, while Million Dollar Extreme’s suspension comes just one day after a merchandise collaboration with TeamSESH rapper Bones.
The suspensions and deverifications follow Twitter’s announcement of new rules, which further politicize verification on the platform despite the company’s claims that verification serves purely as a way to find the official accounts of public figures.
According to the new rules, “Twitter reserves the right to remove verification at any time without notice,” and the platform extends its rules to include “hate,” though the word has not been defined by Twitter.
Last week, Twitter announced that they would start sanctioning users for their offline behavior as well.
Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington and Gab @Nash, or like his page at Facebook.