Journalist Alex Berenson’s Twitter account has been reinstated as part of a resolution to a censorship lawsuit that both parties agreed to settle earlier this week. Reclaim the Net has the story.
Berenson shared an official reinstatement statement where Twitter acknowledged its error in suspending his account: “The parties have come to a mutually acceptable resolution. I have been reinstated. Twitter has acknowledged that my tweets should have not led to my suspension at that time.”
Twitter suspended Berenson last year after flagging one of his tweets that questioned the effectiveness of Covid vaccines and suggested that they’re “at best… a therapeutic with a limited window of efficacy and terrible side effect profile that must be dosed IN ADVANCE OF ILLNESS.”
Berenson responded by suing Twitter and accusing the tech platform of acting “on behalf of the Federal Government in censoring and barring him from access to its platform”.
After being reinstated, Berenson tweeted and pinned the statement that led to his suspension.
Berenson also noted that the settlement “does not end my investigation into the pressures that the Government may have placed on Twitter to suspend my account” and said he’ll provide more information on this issue in the near future.
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who has offered to buy Twitter for $44 billion, responded to Berenson’s reinstatement by asking for further details on the pressures the Government may have placed on Twitter.
“I wish I could,” Berenson tweeted in response to Musk. “But the settlement with @Twitter prevents me from doing so. However, in the near future I hope and expect to have more to report.”
Reclaim the Net notes that it is the first time a large tech platform has admitted it should not have banned a prominent user and reinstated his or her account as part of a legal settlement.
Worth reading in full.
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Fantastic news, which will result in others having the confidence to sue, and lawyers having the confidence to act for them.
One would hope so – that Twitter would simply back down now and readmit all the covid banned users.
But Berenson’s win seems in part related to the fact that a Twitter vice-president repeatedly emailed him to discuss his tweets. In the absence of that, his win was also based on the claim that they didn’t follow their own five-strikes-and-you’re-out policy. So I guess any future legal actions citing the Berenson precedent may have to be based on similar claims.
So there may well be lots of wiggle room for Twitter to claim that the Berenson case was a one-off.
https://alexberenson.substack.com/p/why-the-berenson-v-twitter-settlement?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
If this brings attention to Berenson’s work then that’s a big win for our side.
Bring on Phase Two, Mr Berenson! Don’t take your foot off the gas now!
It won’t wake up most people, but enough, just maybe.
A lot of his supporters are narked because his agreement with Twitter prevents him from discussing any involvement of the US government, a condition he said he wouldn’t agree to when he was fundraising.
A pyrrhic victory at best.
Congratulations Alex. You are like a dog on a bone. Unfortunately, Twitter is dying on its feet. The smartest tweeters are jumping ship. Fed up with censorship. Now even Elon has woken up and walking away from his offer to buy the sinking ship. No one with a brain will remain on twitter. Hope to see you soon, elsewhere.