Twitter suspends Babylon Bee for naming Rachel Levine ‘Man of the Year’

Twitter suspended the account of parody site The Babylon Bee after a tweet misgendered U.S. Assistant Health Secretary Rachel Levine in violation of the platform’s hateful conduct policy.

To regain access to the account, The Babylon Bee has to delete the tweet, a Twitter spokesperson said. 

The tweet that led to the account being suspended reads as follows; “The Babylon Bee’s Man Of The Year is Rachel Levine,” according to a screenshot tweeted by Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon on his personal account. 

Twitter has said it will restore the account, which has more than 1.3 million followers, if the Babylon Bee deletes the tweet, however their CEO Seth Dillon says he has no intention of doing so.

“We’re not deleting anything,” Dillon tweeted from his personal account. “Truth is not hate speech. If the cost of telling the truth is the loss of our Twitter account, then so be it.”

The banned article says that Levine “serves proudly as the first man in that position to dress like a western cultural stereotype of a woman. He is also an admiral in the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. What a boss!” It goes on to say, “He often wears a dress, which some people think is weird, but he doesn’t care one bit,” the article continues. “Come on! Men in India wear dress-type garments, don’t they?”

Dillon tweeted news of the suspension from his own account, attaching a screenshot of the notice from Twitter.

Twitter cited its policy on “hateful conduct,” which states: “You may not promote violence against, threaten, or harass other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease.”

“The account you referenced has been temporarily blocked for violating our hateful conduct policy,” a Twitter spokesperson said. “The account owner is required to delete the violative Tweet before regaining access to their account.”