Twitter Rejects FSF Promotion of Jefferson on Separation of Powers as "Political"

The following statement may be attributed to Free State Foundation President Randolph May:

 

Today I wanted to spend $50 on Twitter to promote one of the "Quotes of the Day" that I post a few times a week to the https://twitter.com/FSFthinktank account.

 

The tweet I wanted to promote is here:

#QuoteoftheDay "The principle of the Constitution is that of separation of Legislative, Executive, and Judiciary functions, except in cases specified...and it ought to be so commented and acted on by every friend of free government." #ThomasJefferson pic.twitter.com/mhv8UMHQY3

— Free State Foundation (@FSFthinktank) October 12, 2020

Twitter rejected the tweet promotion immediately as inconsistent with its policy barring tweets that are "Political." See the attached message from Twitter at the bottom.

 

As I say in my tweet here: "I've defended Twitter's right under the First Amendment many times to decide what content it wants to carry on its service. But Thomas Jefferson on separation of powers?"

 

I'll continue to defend Twitter's First Amendment right to reject whatever speech or content it decides it doesn't want to carry, even when its decisions are beyond silly or capricious. But it's a sad state of affairs, not for me but for the country, when Twitter determines that quoting Thomas Jefferson on separation of powers as a means protecting free government cannot be promoted because it's a "political" statement rather than the statement of foundational constitutional jurisprudence and philosophy which it is.

 

And it is more than a little ironic that Twitter continues to presume to be a staunch defender of "net neutrality" for Internet service providers — as long as no neutrality policy is applied to itself.