Twitter locked the Bee’s account over the weekend after the popular website “awarded” Rachel Levine (pictured above), the transgender Biden administration official, with the title “Man of the Year.”
Levine, who is a biological man with long hair, is the U.S. assistant secretary for health at the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services.
The article was flagged as “hateful conduct” by Twitter and now the Bee’s corporate account, with 1 million-plus followers, remains locked until the article is removed. Seth Dillon, the Bee’s CEO, has refused to do so.
The topics that end up as Babylon Bee articles typically mirror and mock the news of the day and, sure enough, the satirical Levine story came after USA Today named him among its “Women of the Year” in a story it published last week.
Piggy-backing on the USA Today story, the Bee article states that dress-wearing Levine “serves proudly as the first man in that position to dress like a western cultural stereotype of a woman.”
Not done with that observation, the Bee article then points out that Levine was named “admiral” in the U.S. Public Service Commission Corps. That sentence, in fact, is entirely true.
“I am honored to serve as the first female four-star officer of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps,” Levine stated last fall, “and the first openly transgender four-star officer to serve across any of the eight uniformed services.”
Levine is currently serving as the highest-ranking “trans” official in the LGBT-crazed Biden administration, earning him accolades from the Left for making history. That supposed achievement also sets him up to be sheltered from criticism, even if it’s done with humor.
Curtis Houck of Media Research Center reminds AFN that the Bee has emerged as an enemy of right wing-hating social media because of its stories that use humor to make the point.
“Satire,” he says, “is one of the purest forms of free speech.”
Dillon told AFN in a Sept. 2021 story the satirical website was fighting social media giant Facebook over a policy that allows satire but only if it doesn’t “punch down” at the target. The glaring problem with that policy, he said at the time, is Facebook gets to decide what is a fair target and what is off limits.
“Right now the biggest threat to free speech is not coming from the state or federal government,” Dillon told AFN. “It's coming from tech companies that wield unprecedented power.”
After the Bee's account was locked over its Levine story, Twitter has since suspended Turning Point USA leader Charlie Kirk for a post that pointed out Levine lived as a husband and father until age 51.
This week, Dillon’s personal Twitter account was also being reported by the left-wing mob determined to block him from social media.
“The Left isn't interested in freedom or debate,” he warned. “They demand ideological conformity. Submit or they'll silence you.”
Twitter also flagged a Twitter post by Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, after he referred to Levine as a "he" in a post. The post was allowed to remain but was slapped with a warning.
According to a Daily Wire story, independent reporter Savanah Hernandez said Twitter suspended her account -- for the second time -- over the issue of "Lia" Thomas, the male collegiate swimmer. Hernandez told the Wire the mob came after her when her interview with a female Virginia Tech swimmer went viral.
