Twitter suspended the crowdfunding information marketplace Wesearchr Monday evening after the site offered a bounty for the name of the man who sucker-punched alt-right figurehead Richard Spencer.
It’s unclear exactly why the account was removed, but the suspension occurred after Wesearchr put up two information bounties relating to the events of the post-inauguration riots in Washington, D.C.
The first bounty, which offers a reward of $1,340, is to identify the woman who appears to light the hair of a female Trump supporter on fire.
The second bounty offers $4,520 to whomever can identify the masked assailant of Spencer, who was punched in the face while giving an interview to ABC News. News of the assault has been widely covered, with many journalists and public figures extolling and celebrating the violence.
“The ANTIFA thug who violently assaulted Spencer hid his face behind a mask, but some think they caught a glimpse of his face,” the bounty reads. “There’s not much to go on — but let’s identify the ANTIFA criminal who punched Richard Spencer.”
A Twitter spokesperson did not provide The Daily Caller News Foundation with the exact reason for suspension, but highlighted two main clauses from the social media company’s rules on harassment and the publication of private information.
According to the spokesperson, accounts are not permitted to “invite or engage in the targeted abuse or harassment of others.”
Moreover, accounts are not supposed to “publish or post other people’s private and confidential information.”
Since the suspension, hundreds of Twitter users have started a campaign under the hashtag #FreeWesearchr to urge the social media company to restore the Wesearchr account.
Chuck Johnson, who runs Wesearchr along with Pax Dickinson, told TheDCNF that the point of the bounty is not harassment, but to try and solve a crime.
“It’s interesting that we’ve had a bounty up to identify the killer of DNC staffer Seth Rich for months and months and no one seemed to think that was at all beyond the pale, we didn’t hear a single complaint about trying to solve that crime,” Johnson said. “The Spencer bounty is very similar, we’re just trying to identify the perpetrator of a violent crime. Could it be that putting a bounty up on the killer of a Democrat is OK, but putting up a bounty on the puncher of a Trump supporter isn’t?”
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