Twitter Bans UKIP Accounts for Carl Benjamin and Tommy Robinson

Twitter Banned Government

Twitter removed the European Parliment campaign accounts for Carl Benjamin (aka. Sargon of Akkad) and Tommy Robinson less than a month before the election. They were running as members of the UK Independence Party (UKIP).

Twitter did not comment or give explanation as to why Robinson was banned, but the platform did inform Benjamin that the account was removed for violating their “rules against evading permanent suspension,” presumably since Twitter had permanently banned both Carl Benjamin and Tommy Robinson.

However, the accounts were being operated solely by campaign staff members. A member of Benjamin’s staff tweeted the following:

Hi @Twitter @TwitterUK this ban reason for @CarlUKIP is demonstrably false, we on the team took pains and made a concerted effort to ensure that Carl never operated the account for this express reason. It was a purely campaign account to announce campaign days and press releases

– Michael De La Broc (@MDeLaBroc) 26 Apr 2019

Sources / Relevant Material

  1. The Hill "Twitter suspends EU election campaign accounts for two candidates who were previously banned" by Emily Birnbaum (26 Apr 2019)
  2. The Gateway Pundit "MORE ELECTION MEDDLING? Twitter Bans UKIP Campaign Account for Carl Benjamin, Better Known as Sargon of Akkad" by Cassandra Fairbanks (26 Apr 2019)
  3. RT "'How is this not meddling?' Twitter bans Tommy Robinson, Sargon of Akkad campaign accounts" (26 Apr 2019)