Twitter Temporarily Suspended Baltimore Delegate Robbyn Lewis For 'Excessive' Use Of Hashtags While Tweeting About Transit, Climate Change
BALTIMORE (WJZ) — Twitter suspended state Del. Robbyn Lewis for tweeting "excessive" hashtags about using public transit and addressing climate change, and then gave her account back to her a day later.
The Baltimore Democrat tweeted out she was back earlier Friday afternoon.
Thanks everyone for the ♥️! I'm back! Apparently hashtags about transit & African American women leaders are verboten! I never insult, fight, engage trolls. I just ride the bus & my bike & try to love everyone. Back to work! Srsly thank you all! #FreeAtLast pic.twitter.com/lL8EUXxoLc
— Del. Robbyn Lewis (@RobbynLewis46th) September 27, 2019
"Apparently hashtags about transit and African-American women leaders are verboten! I never insult, fight, engage trolls. I just ride the bus and my bike to work and try to love everyone. Back to work! Srsly thank you all!" She tweeted, with the hashtag #FreeAtLast.
She said she was using the hashtags in a post to get her colleagues to use transit on Car Free Day, but said she didn't fully know if that was the reason she was suspended temporarily.
She also posted photos of her appeal on her account suspension, in which Twitter Support said her account was suspended because she was in violation of Twitter rules "prohibiting the misuse of Twitter product features"
It then listed the violations being using a trending or popular hashtag "with an intent to subvert or manipulate a conversation or to drive traffic or attention to accounts, websites, products, services or initiatives," and "tweeting with excessive, unrelated hashtags in a single tweet or across multiple tweets,"
A candidate for City Council in Baltimore's District 12 tweeted his outrage on her suspension.
"@Robbynlewis46th is the first black Delegate to ever represent her district, and ALSO THIS WEBSITE REGULARLY REFUSES TO DEPLATFORM LITERAL NAZIS. Fix this!!" He tweeted in part.
Another Maryland delegate expressed her love for the delegate's tweets, particularly her voice and opinions on public transit.
I love the tweets of @RobbynLewis46th, especially her transit, bicycle, and environmental posts. Her voice is so important for #Baltimore & the state of #Maryland.
— Mary A. Lehman She/Her (@MaryLehman_D1) September 27, 2019
State Delegate Eric Luedtke said the suspension is unacceptable and called out Twitter for their lack of an explanation.
Yesterday @Twitter suspended the account of one of my colleagues, @RobbynLewis46th. I spoke with Delegate Lewis this morning and they have offered no explanation to her or the public. That's unacceptable.
— Delegate Eric Luedtke (@EricLuedtke) September 27, 2019
He added that elected officials should not be cut off by social media platforms as they attempt to communicate with their constituents.