Christian satire website voices ‘concern’ over Twitter policy after it was labeled as ‘spam’

The Babylon Bee, a Christian satire website, said Wednesday it has “concerns” over Twitter’s policy used to suspend accounts after the social media platform temporarily suspended The Babylon Bee’s account earlier this week after mistakenly labeling it as spam. 

The Babylon Bee’s CEO Seth Dillon on Monday said the website’s Twitter account had been suspended before sharing a follow up post with a screenshot of an email with Twitter’s apology. 

Twitter said it was “sorry for the inconvenience” and said the account had been “flagged as spam by mistake,” according to the screenshot of the email Dillon tweeted.

Twitter says sorry, they made a mistake. pic.twitter.com/ZsM3if2vfj

— Seth Dillon (@SethDillon) August 17, 2020

Dillon posted on Facebook Wednesday about “concerns” The Babylon Bee has over Twitter’s “mistakes,” suggesting the social media platform is skewed against The Babylon Bee’s conservative content. 

“So we’re back on Twitter, at least for the time being. But we share the concerns of others who’ve rightly observed that these ‘mistakes’ tend to work in one direction,” Dillon said. 

Dillon urged supporters of the website to subscribe to its social media platforms to limit the chance of getting suspended again, noting that it relies on Facebook and Twitter to drive traffic. 

He also included a statement the website sent out when it launched its subscription service, claiming social media companies aren’t “friendly to Christians or conservatives” and instead are hostile “toward those with more traditional views and values.”

A Twitter spokesman confirmed in a statement to The Hill that the account was mistakenly caught in a spam filter, adding that the account has been reinstated. The spokesman did not directly respond to Dillon’s accusations and concerns about the platform’s policy.

Updated on Aug. 20 at 10:26 a.m.