Twitter suspended the account of right-leaning parody site The Babylon Bee after a tweet misgendered U.S. Assistant Health Secretary Rachel Levine in violation of the platform’s hateful conduct policy.
To regain access to the account, The Babylon Bee has to delete the tweet that violates Twitter’s guidelines, a Twitter spokesperson said.
The tweet that triggered the temporary lock misgendered Levine by stating, “The Babylon Bee’s Man Of The Year is Rachel Levine,” according to a screenshot tweeted by Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon on his personal account.
Dillon indicated the account will not delete the tweet to regain account access.
“They could, of course, delete the tweet themselves. But they won’t. It’s not enough for them to just wipe it out. They want us to bend the knee and admit that we engaged in hateful conduct,” Dillon tweeted.
The Babylon Bee tweet was posted after USA Today named Levine, who is transgender, as one of its Women of the Year. Levine, 64, was honored for her work in the Biden administration leading 6,000 uniformed public health officers during a pandemic.
Twitter on Thursday flagged another tweet misgendering Levine from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) but left the tweet accessible to view under the warning label.