James Lindsay, the activist who coined the ‘Ok, Groomer’ meme, has been permanently suspended from Twitter for violating the platform’s rules against “hateful conduct” Friday.
Lindsay was suspended after calling activist and Harvard Law professor Alejandra Caraballo a “child sexualization specialist,” according to screenshots Lindsay provided to the Daily Caller. Caraballo had told Lindsay, “Your misogynoir is showing,” in response to a tweet that Lindsay says “implied Kamala Harris is incompetent.”
“Twitter has made it abundantly clear it is actively complicit in the protection of the sexualization of children,” Lindsay told the Daily Caller. “This will be a short term inconvenience for me, but they have painted themselves in the worst possible light and raised a lot of attention for the issue, so I’m grateful for that.”
Ridiculous and embarrassing. Twitter suspends truth-teller @ConceptualJames
Big Tech acting like Big Brother pic.twitter.com/UEp6INImlk
— Steve Cortes (@CortesSteve) August 5, 2022
Lindsay told the Daily Caller he has appealed the suspension, telling the social media company, “The problem is that you arbitrarily changed the rules and suspended my account after repeatedly forcing me to lie to admissions of guilt for ‘violations’ that aren’t real.”
“You should un-suspend my account and correct your biased and arbitrary policy enforcement,” Lindsay wrote to Twitter. (RELATED: ‘No Warning, No Explanation’: Twitter Suspends Account That Tracks CRT In Schools)
Lindsay told the Daily Caller he has not received a response yet, but he added the company confirmed they received the appeal.
In mid-July, a Media Matters article said Twitter should “follow Reddit’s lead and take action against the ‘groomer’ smear inciting anti-LGBTQ harassment.” Media Matters directly called for Lindsay’s suspension, referencing a Twitter thread from Caraballo that detailed how Lindsay pushed the “Ok, Groomer” response on the social media platform. Lindsay uses the phrase to respond to teachers and activists who push for children to learn about sex and gender identity from a young age.
Responding to Lindsay’s suspension on Friday, Caraballo wrote, “Good riddance.”
“Tell James, I want him to know it was me,” Caraballo added, referring to a screenshot showing she had mass-reported Lindsay’s account for “hateful conduct.”
Caraballo and Media Matters did not respond to the Daily Caller’s request for comment.
Tell James, I want him to know it was me. pic.twitter.com/fn49LqjTdK
— Alejandra Caraballo (@Esqueer_) August 5, 2022
Lindsay was locked out of his Twitter account in July for calling a Media Matters employee a “groomer” on his account. Lindsay regained access 12 hours later, after deleting the offending tweet. Lindsay made the comment in response to criticism that the LGBTQ program director at Media Matters had leveled against a Daily Caller News Foundation article.
Twitter says on its website that its policy against “hateful conduct” is not at odds with values of free speech.
“We are committed to combating abuse motivated by hatred, prejudice or intolerance, particularly abuse that seeks to silence the voices of those who have been historically marginalized,” according to the company’s policy.
The platform also says it prohibits speech that targets individuals “with repeated slurs, tropes or other content that intends to dehumanize, degrade or reinforce negative or harmful stereotypes about a protected category.”
Twitter did not respond to the Daily Caller’s request for comment.