Zero Hedge, the notorious financial blog, got its Twitter account back over the weekend. Earlier this year, Twitter suspended the account after it published a post speculating that the coronavirus leaked from a Wuhan laboratory. The pseudonymous authors, who collectively go by “Durden,” shared the personal information of the Chinese scientist they claimed was behind the release (intentional or otherwise) of SARS-CoV-2. At the time, Twitter claimed that the post violated its “rules against abuse and harassment.”
Twitter now says it banned the “deeply conspiratorial, anti-establishment and pessimistic” (CNN’s characterization) blog by mistake. Whoops. Accidents happen, but usually they’re ameliorated in fewer than four months. If I were a Zero Hedge author, I might suspect that the Chinese government played a role in my suspension, either through coordinated flagging of my account or, even more alarmingly, by contacting Twitter directly.
Alas, I’m not a Zero Hedge author. Whatever happened, the reinstatement of Zero Hedge is a victory for free speech. You don’t have to buy into the conspiracy theories to enjoy reading them.