Some major news has dropped over at Twitter that has members of the left (and some on the right) melting down. Aaron Rupar, a far-left hack who posts clips of conservatives out of context in order to push political narratives has been banned from the social media site.
The immediate reaction was that Rupar must have been banned for partisan reasons.
Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) account suddenly suspended. This is not ok. pic.twitter.com/JMlD3Clm8Z
— Steve St. Germain » (@stevestgermain) December 16, 2022
The irony in those posts is so thick you can cut it with a knife. For over a decade, conservatives with large followings and careers based around Twitter have been banned. Not once did I see a liberal shed a tear, demanding they be reinstated. On the contrary, the usual response was to cheer the suspensions as justified.
Given that, when I saw Rupar had been suspended, my first reaction was to wait and see. He’s earned no benefit of the doubt, and if there’s a legitimate violation, then why would I stump to have him to be reinstated?
Sure enough, it looks like he broke a rule on doxxing that Musk recently expanded after his son was attacked. Specifically, the Twitter owner banned the posting of links to a site called ElonJet, which tracks Musk’s jet despite the fact that the FAA has an ADSB privacy ban on it. In other words, you normally can’t search his tail number and see where he’s at. ElonJets gets around that by knowing where the planes were last and revealing their otherwise anonymous flight paths.
The argument against Rupar’s suspension is that Musk broadened the doxxing rules out recently, making it a bannable offense to post someone’s live location in most situations. Some would say that’s too personal, with him yielding his power more like a king than someone pursuing a broad free speech policy.
I get the critique. At the same time, when Twitter updates the TOS and very specifically says to not post links to the locations of Musk and his family, maybe doing it anyway and taunting the guy who owns the site isn’t such a great idea? There were things I didn’t like about the old Twitter regime, but I followed the rules because I valued my voice on the platform. Liberals have been so used to not having the rules enforced against them that they act shocked when an equal playing field emerges.
To summarize, Rupar is one of the worst figures on the internet. That doesn’t necessarily mean he should be banned, though. In fact, it’s fun having him around to dunk on. Still, if he purposely set out to break the TOS, which is what it looks like, then he was banned justifiably. Whether it’s long-term or just a few days, I guess we’ll find out.