Culture Blurb had a Twitter profile used to promote the blurbs from our website. During the last days of October 2020, we pushed three tweets which earned us a Twitter suspension aka Twitter Cancellation. Our tweets were posted during the height of the Presidential election and the Breonna Taylor Grand Jury push-back. Our top tweet stated that black ballots were being rejected at a higher rate and to make sure rejected ballots were fixed prior to November 5th. Another tweet indicated that black voters should make sure their ballots were signed and legible. The third tweet indicated Grand Juror #3 has stepped forward and inquired how many other Grand Juries were lied to in cases involving police brutality? All three tweets were valid based on multiple creditable news outlets and were not based on our personal opinion.
This experience has opened our eyes. Many Black media creators promoting black positivity, social justice, and community awareness are being sent to social media jail by YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. They’ve received weeks or months of suspension or outright cancellation of their accounts without a fair or justifiable reason. They delete our content and profiles without warning. In our case, we were told we violated Twitter rules. However, we did not receive any warning we were violating rules. We also did not receive any response to our website and email inquiries asking which rules were violated.
Social media giants promote and allow posts showing blacks at their worst or being killed in public. It seems that fighting, highly sexual content, dancing or dying in the street are acceptable social media posts for the black community. Content that is racially charged, violent, and critical against the black community are allowed to go viral and remain online. These platforms still allow violent extremists to post and have profiles while silencing positive black content. Black voices and creators promoting positivity, advancement, and social awareness need our own social media platform. This will allow us to speak freely when it comes to our community.