
Why can they publish the address of law enforcement officials targeted with assassination but we can’t publish their addresses?
GotNews.com editor-in-chief Charles C. Johnson had his popular Twitter account censored by Twitter for publishing journalism related to the Ferguson protests.
Johnson received a notice that his account had been “permanently suspended” by Twitter without any warning. He is fighting for an appeal.
“I didn’t violate Twitter’s terms of service,” Johnson said. “Twitter just decided that I had. They’ve decided to make up the rules as they go and work with the mob to target journalists.”
Johnson says he did exactly what the New York Times did when they published an article listing the address of Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. Wilson has been targeted for assassination by the Black Panthers. Johnson linked to GotNews article listing the addresses of the two New York Times reporters to prove the point.
“It’s no secret that I’ve been targeted by the Ferguson mob for publishing material that they don’t like,” Johnson said. “I’ve been threatened with death threats and had my site hacked but I’ve pressed on. Twitter hasn’t suspended any of these accounts.”
Johnson is simply asking for the double standards to be removed. “If my account is suspended, the New York Times’ journalists accounts @campbellnyt & @juliebosman should also be suspended.”
“I was the first journalist in the country to publish that Darren Wilson wouldn’t be indicted three days before the rest of the media,” Johnson points out. He breaks many stories hours or days before the rest of the media.
“Twitter apparently has a journalism problem,” Johnson said. They suspended his account earlier after he published the name of Ebola nurse, Nina Pham, twelve hours before the major networks, and after he published the address of Youngor Jallah, the baby mama of Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan. “Twitter has decided that censoring me, rather than applauding me for improving their site, is the way to go. Too bad.”
Johnson detects a political undercurrent to the censorship. “Jack Dorsey [the co-founder of Twitter] wants to run for mayor of New York City. He’s a well known liberal Democrat. Imagine if he got power if this is how Twitter treats journalists.”
Johnson is an award-winning journalist who decided to create his own news company after dissatisfaction with corporate journalism. GotNews.com is currently about to receive venture backing.
What should his supporters do?
“I encourage everyone to tweet to @support to call for my @chuckcjohnson account to be reinstated,” Johnson said.
Johnson says he’s in talks with lawyers to plan his next move but he hope it doesn’t come to that. “I just want to continue providing journalism.”
If you want to support GotNews.com financially, here‘s the link.