ACCUSES CORPORATION OF RELIGIOUS “PERSECUTION”
by Sharon Rondeau
(Apr. 3, 2018) — On Tuesday morning, Br. Alexis Bugnolo, founder of a Catholic association whose main Twitter account, @MilitarisCath, was suspended on March 13, informed The Post & Email that he filed a second appeal to the suspension and that the situation is worse.
Over the Easter weekend, this writer contacted Twitter’s Board of Directors through its online contact form to request a response to the suspension of the account for Ordo Militaris Catholicus.
We received no response by our 12 noon EDT press deadline, but Br. Bugnolo reported late that afternoon that three other Twitter accounts with which he is personally associated and had also been suspended at an unknown time had been “unsuspended.”
The Post & Email updated its story with that information.
On Tuesday morning, Br. Bugnolo told us that the “persecution of our Association and its members” on Twitter’s part has “gone to a new level.” He explained:
Members of our Association communicated on Twitter through a private group Direct Message. It seems that yesterday afternoon, Twitter kicked everyone out of the group without cause and without notification. I now have written confirmation from 5 members of this chat group, that they were kicked out without notice and without knowledge. It seems the only purpose of this is to persecute our Religious Association, obstruct our free association and prevent our common humanitarian efforts on behalf of persecuted Christians, because none of their (our members) twitter accounts have been suspended or flagged for violation of Twitter User policies.
Br. Bugnolo is convinced that the suspension of his main account and the “harassment” which other members of his organization experienced derives from his having “called for equity before the law for Christians in the UK vis a vis Muslims” in the tweet which, according to Twitter, initiated the suspension by violating its “hateful conduct” policy.
The tweet had been critical of UK Prime Minister Teresa May’s alleged failure to put an end to the destructiveness of radical Islam within her nation’s borders while in Bugnolo’s view, she is “prosecuting Christians for #ReligiouslyAggravatedHarassment.”
After he was informed that his account was suspended, Bugnolo declined to remove the offensive tweet, as Twitter suggested he do, contending that the tweet contains no “hateful” dialog and does not call for violence or unlawful activity against any individual or group.
“I feel like Twitter Inc is treating me and the members of our Catholic Association the same way Christians in the MidEast are treated by their Muslim Sharia-Law compliant governments,” Bugnolo said. “What kind of world does Twitter want to bring humanity through their platform?”
After receiving Bugnolo’s newest information, this writer located the information for Twitter’s media relations team to request comment.
Our email to them reads:
Good morning, I am requesting a comment from you regarding an account of one of my readers which was suspended on March 13 and remains so after he filed two appeals claiming that the tweet which initiated the suspension did not characterize “hateful conduct” as stated in your policy.
The locked account is @MilitarisCath
I have seen the allegedly objectionable tweet and read your policy. Over the weekend I contacted the Board of Directors for comment but received no response. However, three accounts associated with the same individual found to have been locked late last week were quietly unlocked yesterday, which was appreciated.
This morning the reader reported that a number of his colleagues were prevented from exchanging direct messages even though their accounts had not been suspended. Here is part of the email he sent me:
“Twitter kicked everyone out of the group without cause and without notification. I now have written confirmation from 5 members of this chat group, that they were kicked out without notice and without knowledge. It seems the only purpose of this is to persecute our Religious Association, obstruct our free association and prevent our common humanitarian efforts on behalf of persecuted Christians, because none of their (our members) twitter accounts have been suspended or flagged for violation of Twitter User policies.”
I have written several articles on the suspension, providing a link to one of them to the Board of Directors on Saturday. Here is the most recent article, from which you can find links to the earlier ones:
Seeing as Twitter has been silent on this issue, I would appreciate a comment for publication so that I can relate your side of the story.
Thank you very much.
Sharon Rondeau, Editor
The Post & Email
www.thepostemail.com