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Commentator Candace Owens says her Twitter account was suspended following tweet about Whitmer

by Kaelan Deese - 05/02/20 3:46 PM ET

Candace Owens, a conservative commentator and online activist, claims she was suspended from Twitter following a tweet criticizing Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s (D) stay-at-home order and encouraging the state’s citizens to violate the directive.

Twitter flagged Owens’s tweet for violating the site’s policies, according to the news source Mediaite. Owens alerted several conservative colleagues of her suspended account following her critique of Whitmer.

A spokeswoman for Twitter confirmed to The Hill that Owens’s tweet violated the platform’s COVID-19 misinformation policy, “specifically around heightened-risk health claims.”

She added that, according to the policy, Owens’s tweet involved “denial of … government body recommendations to decrease an individual’s likelihood of exposure to COVID-19 with the intent to influence users into acting contrary to recommended guidance.”

The spokeswoman said the tweet would need to be deleted while Owens served a “timeout” before her profile could be reinstated.

ALERT

Candace Owens has been suspended from Twitter.
Candace tweeted that people in Michigan should go back to work.
What rule did she break?
Not even Twitter can say.

Candace Owens tells people to work and gets cancelled but AOC can tell people *not* to work and all good pic.twitter.com/4tCH3ibUcW

— Benny (@bennyjohnson) May 2, 2020

The tweet, which has been removed, said, “Apparently @GovWhitmer believes she is a duly elected dictator of a socialist country. The people of Michigan need to stand up to her. Open your businesses. Go to work. The police think she’s crazy too. They are not going to arrest 10,000,000 people for going to work.”

Owens shared a screenshot of her removed post with the Gateway Pundit, a conservative website, with a comment that stated, “Twitter has locked me out of my account but has decided to omit which of their policies I have violated,” adding that “I stand by my statement about Governor Whitmer acting as a dictator.”

Other conservative accounts chimed in, expressing their support for Owens, including political activist Chuck Woolery and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.

So Laura Loomer and Candace Owens are not allowed to play on Twitters Beach anymore?

— Chuck Woolery (@chuckwoolery) May 2, 2020

RT it you stand with Candace Owens! Chinese Communist Party propaganda accounts reign free to tweet their garbage yet they ban @RealCandaceO.

Reinstate!

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) May 2, 2020

Mediaite reported that Owens appealed Twitter’s actions.

Updated 4:40 p.m.

Tags Candace Owens Turning Point USA Twitter Twitter suspensions