Social media website Twitter has reportedly severed ties with the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center which previously operated as one of the site’s “safety partners.”
The Daily Caller reports that Twitter has severed ties with the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) following reports of a number of scandals within the organization; some insider reports allege that the SPLC’s “hate” monitoring is, in fact, a money making scam. Previously, the SPLC was one of Twitter’s “safety partners” which helped to identify and remove “hateful conduct and harassment” on the platform.
An anonymous source inside Twitter told the Daily Caller: “The SPLC is not a member of Twitter’s Trust and Safety Council or a partner the company has worked with recently.” Currently, the SPLC is not present on Twitter’s Safety Partners list. The SPLC has long come under fire for labeling mainstream conservative groups as hate groups; organizations which have been incorrectly branded by the SPLC include the Family Research Council, the Ruth Institute, Alliance Defending Freedom, the David Horowitz Freedom Center, and Jihad Watch.
Breitbart News editor Joel Pollak reported in March of this year about the various scandals that the SPLC has faced recently:
Bob Moser, a former SPLC staffer, wrote in the New Yorker last week: “The work could be meaningful and gratifying. But it was hard, for many of us, not to feel like we’d become pawns in what was, in many respects, a highly profitable scam.”
The president of the SPLC, Richard Cohen, has resigned. So, too, did the SPLC’s deputy legal director, and a member of the SPLC’s board of directors.
For years, the SPLC — once a widely-respected civil rights organization — has smeared conservative organizations that it falsely designated as “hate groups” merely for holding mainstream views that differ with those of the radical left. In 2012, a crazed leftist used the SPLC’s “hate map” in an attempted mass shooting at the Family Research Council (FRC) in Washington, DC; the FRC was on the list merely because it supports traditional marriage.
In 2018, the SPLC agreed to pay British anti-extremist Muslim Maajid Nawaz $3.3 million after mis-identifying him as an “anti-Muslim extremist.” In 2015, it apologized for including Ben Carson on its list of extremists.
Despite this, the SPLC has still been treated as an authority on “hate groups” for some time, perhaps with Twitter making the first move to distance itself from the organization, others will follow suit.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or email him at lnolan@breitbart.com
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.