Twitter suspends conservative for tweeting about brussels sprouts

Apparently, Twitter determined that Boreing had violated their rules by "promoting or encouraging self-harm."

Of course, that was completely preposterous. The joke was about how brussels sprouts are awful. No reasonable person would infer that Boreing was actually suggesting that anyone burn their face with a hot pan.

This particular Twitter drama had a happy ending however. Within hours, the usually inept Twitter safety team actually righted their wrong and reinstated Boreing.

But as lighthearted as this story sounds, there is an underlying menace to it.

As Ben Shapiro pointed out, there is a real hypocrisy problem at Twitter. Ellen Barkin tweeting that she hopes Louis C.K. "gets raped" is apparently perfectly fine, while brussels sprout-based humour is unsafe.

There are many threats and incitements to violence against people on Twitter that remain, while innocuous quips like Boreing get targeted. This leads people to believe that Twitter has a bias against conservatives. And indeed, that does seem to be the case not only with Twitter, but on all major social media platforms.

Here is something else to consider: Social media platforms like Twitter only really spring into action when a complaint is made. Social justice activists and progressives are way more likely to make complaints in general, and especially about unsafe language.

Perhaps one solution is to suspend the accounts of serial, spurious complainers.

For now, we are happy to see that Boreing has been reinstated. After all, his joke was based on the fundamental truth that brussels sprouts should not be eaten. So if you stop to think about it, he was actually trying to prevent people from engaging in self-harm.