Twitter BANS David Vance

The far right have, of late, not had a good time peddling their hate speech on Twitter. Laura Loomer may be standing for election in the USA, but she’s long been banned from the platform. Martin Sellner, the nearest thing Europe has to real Nazi Royalty, recently followed her. Stephen Yaxley Lennon, who styles himself Tommy Robinson, has also been removed, as has has-been man-baby Milo Yiannopoulos.

David Vance. Still in a black shirt

And then came pro-am motormouth Katie Hopkins, to prove that a million followers was no defence against persistently breaking the Ts and Cs. But while all this mayhem was going on, one vicious racist hate merchant kept right on. David Vance, occasional pundit and failed politician, was still there earlier this week. But then he overreached himself.

As Zelo Street noted two days ago, his attack on footballer Marcus Rashford earned him the kind of recognition that breeds not merely raised eyebrows, but a lot of complaints. And so it came to pass yesterday that he told his faithful followers the bad news - so bad, in fact, that he had to use Parler to get his message out. Because Twitter had acted at last.

“Well then, guess what. I was trending on Twitter yesterday as the left-wing mob came for me. The abuse sent my way was incredible, yet Twitter froze my account and has subsequently deactivated my Periscope channel. I contrast the hate I get there with the decency here and recognise that I should be using Parler for my social media engagement” he blubbered. Parler was wonderful. Because it had not yet banned him.

Meanwhile, Vance’s Twitter account appeared to have been taken private, although seasoned observers of the process by which blue tick accounts are removed noted that this had been seen before. Vance’s account had not merely been frozen, it was in the process of being suspended. Another vicious racist was about to meet reality.

The final dénouement was not long in arriving. Overnight, the status of Vance’s account changed from being merely private, to not being there at all. All it says now is that the account is suspended, and “Twitter suspends accounts which violate the Twitter rules”.

What does The Great Man have to say for himself this morning? As usual, there is a combination of spin, lies and delusion as he blusters “Morning Parler! The good news is that I am finally free from the sewer of Twitter. My account was removed overnight. I’m happy to be free and Parler is my choice of social media [cos it hasn’t banned him yet]”.

So much does he hate Twitter that his @altnewsmedia account is still up, but complaints are already being lodged that this is merely another Vance sock puppet. David Vance has gone the way of all the other far-right hate merchants, to the great relief of many others who wished it had happened rather earlier. And he has no-one to blame but himself.

The time of Vance on Twitter was for a time, but not for all time. Just rejoice at that news.

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