Twitter suspends Project Veritas and locks out founder James O'Keefe after the conservative watchdog uploaded video of Facebook executive being confronted outside his home
Twitter suspended Project Veritas from its platform Thursday, citing repeated violations of their rules 'against posting private information'.
The conservative watchdog's founder, James O'Keefe, was also temporarily locked out of his account for breaching the same privacy policy, pending the deletion of tweet, a Twitter spokesperson told the Daily Beast.
The suspensions reportedly stem from a video the group shared on Wednesday featuring Facebook's Vice President of Integrity, Guy Rosen, a screenshot shared by Project Veritas on Telegram indicated.
In the footage, which is still available on YouTube, Rosen is confronted outside his home by Veritas' Christian Hartsock regarding claims that Facebook 'freezes' comments on threads where the site's algorithm detects there 'may be' hate speech.
While Project Veritas did blur the licence plates of the cars parked in Rosen's driveway, the number of the executive's home is briefly visible in the clip.
Twitter has not yet returned a DailyMail.com request for comment to clarify how the video specifically breached its privacy rules.
But in its messages to O'Keefe and Project Veritas, the social media giant wrote: 'You may not publish or post other people's private information without their expressed authorization and permission.'
Twitter suspended Project Veritas from its platform, citing repeated breaches of the same policy
It came after the watchdog posted a video featuring Facebook's Vice President of Integrity, Guy Rosen (above), showing him being confronted outside his home by one of their reporters
While Project Veritas did blur the licence plates of the cars parked in Rosen's driveway, the number of the executive's home is briefly visible in the clip. He is seen in a grab from the video
In the outlet's video, Hartsock is seen asking Rosen to comment on leaked footage from an internal meeting in which he appears to state that Facebook has a 'system that is able to freeze commenting' where 'there may be a thread that has hate speech or violence, sort of in the comments.'
'These are all things we’ve built over the past three-four years as part of our investments into the integrity space, our efforts to protect the election,' Rosen continues in the clip.
When confronted over the comments, a startled looking Rosen refuses to respond to Hartsock and simply walks inside his home.
Project Veritas tweeted the footage mid-afternoon Wednesday, writing: 'Facebook VP of Integrity @guyro didn't look too happy to see us...'
O'Keefe also shared the footage. In his post, he wrote: 'INTEGRITY ALERT Facebook Vice President @guyro REFUSES to comment from confronted by @Project_Veritas Senior Journalist Christian Hartsock'.
Twitter flagged both of the posts for violating its private information policy.
O’Keefe told The Wrap he was 'wrestling' with the idea of deleting the flagged tweets in order to regain access to his personal account.
'What I’m trying to understand is, what about what we did is quote "posting private information"?' he said.
Project Veritas founder, James O'Keefe (left), was also temporarily locked out of his account for allegedly beaching the platform's private information policies
'Reporters with microphones [and] cameras engage in reporting activities on the streets all the time in residential communities, so I’m trying to understand what Twitter considers violating their rules against posting private information.
'Does Twitter consider reporting information the public has a right to know private information? This is quite the Rubicon we’re crossing if Twitter wants to ban this particular piece of information.'
O'Keefe has since deleted the offending tweet.
While his personal page is still publicly accessible, Project Veritas' page remains blocked.
O'Keefe and Project Veritas have reportedly appealed Twitter's decision.
Project Veritas reportedly never received a formal response to its appeal from Twitter and only received an email notifying them about the suspension.
'Note that if you attempt to evade a permanent suspension by creating new accounts, we will suspend your new accounts,' Twitter warned Project Veritas, according to Fox News.
Twitter has not yet returned a DailyMail.com request for comment to clarify how the video breached its privacy rules. But in its messages to O'Keefe and Project Veritas, the social media giant wrote: 'You may not publish or post other people's private information without their expressed authorisation and permission'
News of the suspensions come as conservatives continue to raise concerns over the censoring powers of big tech companies, such as Twitter, Facebook, Google, Apple and Amazon.
Facebook and Twitter were among a number of social media networks to ban then-President Donald Trump from its platforms amid accusations his repeated claims of election fraud 'provoked violence'.
Just over a month ago, Project Veritas also leaked a clip that appears to show Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey talking about deleting more accounts, following the banning of Trump.
'We know we are focused on one account right now, but this is going to be much bigger than just one account, and it’s going to go on for much longer than just this day, this week, the next few weeks, going on beyond inauguration,' Dorsey is reportedly heard saying in the video call. 'We have to expect that. We have to be ready for that.'
Dorsey then referenced actions that were taken against QAnon-related accounts, saying it is part of a 'broader approach.'
'You know, the U.S. is extremely divided. Our platform is showing that every single day,' Dorsey continues. 'And our role is to protect the integrity of that conversation and do what we can to make sure that no one is being harmed based off that. And that is our focus.'
Amid the claims of conservative censorship at the hands of big tech, alternative social platforms such as Parler, Telegram, Gab, and MeWe have all experience a boom in usership, in recent weeks.
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