Why was The Babylon Bee banned from Twitter? Suspension explained amid Rachel Levine tweet controversy 

Conservative Christian satire news site The Babylon Bee's CEO Seth Dillon has called out Twitter for banning the site's account on the platform. The news platform's Twitter account was locked over a tweet where they awarded the 2022 "Man of the Year" to the United States Assistant Secretary for Health, Dr. Rachel Levine, who identifies as a woman.

On Monday, March 22, Dillon tweeted the suspension notification from Twitter about the conservative news portal's allegedly controversial tweet. Dillon shared the screenshot of the notice in the tweet and disclosed that Twitter would not restore the account unless they deleted the post.

The CEO further added in a separate tweet that the firm would not be censoring their tweet by removing it. He wrote,

"We're not deleting anything. Truth is not hate speech. If the cost of telling the truth is the loss of our Twitter account, then so be it."

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Why was The Babylon Bee banned from Twitter?

According to the screenshot of the account suspension notice shared by Seth Dillon, Twitter cited "hateful conduct" when banning the news site's account. As per Twitter's help page, "hateful conduct" refers to tweets or content posted on the platform that can be categorized as promoting violence or inciting direct attacks or threats against people.

The platform's "hateful conduct" clause includes any such attack or instance of violence against people "on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, caste, s*xual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease."

While The Babylon Bee's post and its implications are being debated, Twitter has not yet mentioned what specific segment of the "hateful conduct policy" the tweet has violated. Since then, numerous followers of Seth Dillon's platform have replied in support of his tweets.

Part of the confusion is that the original tweet had addressed Dr. Rachel Levine as a man. Since the term in question is not precisely a 'slur,' this makes it more unclear as to how the social media giant cited violations of terms.

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The Babylon Bee's response to the controversy

The controversy stemmed from the news portal's article on Dr. Rachel Levine, who considers herself a woman after transitioning from a "biological man" in 2011. On March 15, the site published a report titled "The Babylon Bee's Man Of The Year Is Rachel Levine."

In the article, they referred to Levine as a man and used 'He/Him' pronouns for her and claimed that the pediatrician's self-identification as a woman "has no bearing on the truth." Furthermore, in his tweet, Seth Dillon argued,

"...they won't allow you to conclude that a person's maleness makes them a man. If Rachel self-identifies as a woman, then you must affirm that."

Since the controversy went public, Dillon has claimed that multiple Twitter users have mass-reported his personal account. This time, however, Twitter clarified that the reported posts are not in violation of their policies and are hence not subject to being removed.