Politics

Noted Global Warming Skeptic Gets His Twitter Account Suspended

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Michael Bastasch DCNF Managing Editor
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Twitter has suspended the account of Steven Goddard, the pseudonym of a well-known blogger who is critical of man-made global warming.

After receiving messages of complaints against his account from Twitter in late February, Goddard woke up Monday morning to find his account had been suspended for violating Twitter’s rules.

“I tried to make a tweet around 8 am, and it failed to go through,” Goddard told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Then a message appeared at the top of my Twitter account, saying that my account had been suspended for ‘violation of Twitter rules.'”

Twitter has previously told Goddard users complained against him for making “non-violent threats” and for “abusive behavior.” Goddard denied ever making threats or being abusive, saying that he was himself often the target of attacks.

“I have never violated any Twitter rules, and Twitter has failed to respond to my requests to provide any details,” Goddard said.

Goddard earned notoriety among environmental activist circles for his criticism of man-made global warming. Most notably, Goddard, who has degrees in geology and electrical engineering, has been widely cited for showing evidence that government climate agencies’ adjustments to temperature data have created an artificial warming trend.

Goddard’s work has gotten attention from some climate scientists, Republican lawmakers and conservative writers, like Christopher Booker. Goddard has even been listed on the “Who’s Who List of Climate Denialists” — list put together by environmentalists of global warming “deniers” targeted by email hackers.

The Who’s Who List says Goddard has “called it ‘a massive lie’ that 97 percent of climate scientists agree the world is warming. He also maintains that U.S. and global temperature records have been tampered with, rendering global warming projections inaccurate.”

Goddard has gotten into many heated arguments with scientists, activists and individuals who argue that man-made global warming is a threat to civilization, so it could be that anyone of them that complained to Twitter.

Twitter could not comment on suspending @SteveSGoddard because the company does not disclose information about individual accounts. Twitter’s rules say the company can permanently suspend an account for rule violations or if they “suspect an account has been hacked or compromised.”

Ironically, Goddard said the last tweet he sent out before having his account suspended was “After taking power, progressives changed their motto from ‘always question authority’ to ‘it is illegal to question authority.'”

Goddard noted on his blog Real Science this morning that his account had been deleted. After the news had spread, many of his followers spoke out on Twitter to petition that his account be restored.

Update: Twitter has restored Goddard’s account.

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