Last Updated on June 22, 2021
National File’s Jack Hadfield has been locked out of his Twitter account for 12 hours for celebrating the Big Tech platform’s decision to reverse the suspension of the National File account.
On Monday, National File was locked out of their official Twitter account for tweeting out a story covering the tragic death of a 13-year-old boy from Michigan who passed away only three days after receiving his second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer. The 12 hour lock-out was down to the tweet having allegedly violated the Twitter rules, specifically regarding their policy on “spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID-19.
The action taken against National File for reporting on the story drew backlash from many conservatives, including prominent author and commentator Michelle Malkin, who decried Twitter for “covering up post-COVID vax deaths of children.” In an email response, a Twitter spokesperson said that they had taken enforcement action on the National File account “in error,” and as such, the account had fully been restored immediately. Major news outlets, including Breitbart and RT, covered the story.
Twitter locked the account of the National File, a national populist news website, for reporting on a tweet from Tami Burages, a woman who says her 13-year old nephew died three days after receiving a second dose of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine. https://t.co/lpUcX7sG5Y
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) June 22, 2021
Jack Hadfield, who authored both articles for National File regarding the action from Twitter on the publication, himself tweeted out the second story on the reversal of Twitter’s actions. The tweet, “VICTORY: Twitter has fully restored the @NationalFile account for reporting on the post-COVID vaccine death of a 13-year-old boy, claiming the 12 hour suspension was simply “in error”,” mirrored the language of the original tweet which had deemed to have not violated the Twitter rules, yet on Tuesday afternoon, Hadfield was locked out of his account for 12 hours for this tweet, for allegedly violating the same COVID-19 policy.
“If I had to describe this situation in one word, it would be ‘ironic’,” Hadfield said. “How on Earth can Twitter reverse the suspension of a news outlet, and then lock out that same reporter from his personal account, for using almost identical language in their tweets? If this is yet another ‘error’ on Twitter’s part, it is certainly concerning that these ‘errors’ only ever seem to go in one direction.”
National File contacted Twitter and asked them a number of questions. National File inquired to Twitter to if there were any major content differences between between their original tweet, and Hadfield’s tweet, and if not, why they would have reversed the suspension of one and targeted the other. The email also noted that Breitbart, in covering the story, had used very similar language in their reporting. Most notably, the original Twitter thread from Ms Burages, which contained far more emotive language, was not judged to have violated the policies of the Big Tech platform, and instead removed of her own volition.
Twitter claimed earlier this month that the suspension of the Informed Consent Action Network for tweeting that they would publish emails from Anthony Fauci was also in “error,” with their account also being restored following a National File inquiry.
National File will update this story if necessary.
