Twitter forced to admit fault in suspending journalist Alex Berenson
Twitter admitted it was wrong to suspend journalist Alex Berenson after the two parties reportedly settled a lawsuit, Berenson shared Wednesday. The social media giant booted Berenson from the platform in August 2021 for contradicting official COVID-19 messaging in a tweet, despite it being factually accurate.
“It doesn’t stop infection. Or transmission,” Berenson’s offending tweet read. “Don’t think of it as a vaccine. Think of it – at best – as a therapeutic with a limited window of efficacy and terrible side effect profile that must be dosed IN ADVANCE OF ILLNESS. And we want to mandate it? Insanity.”
None of Berenson’s statement about the vaccine is disputed by Pfizer, the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) or any other official body, yet it prompted Twitter to suspend the former New York Times journalist in violation of Twitter’s own “five strikes” rule. The tweet was Berenson’s first “strike”.
After bringing a lawsuit against the social media giant for the violation and “specific commitments” made to him by a Twitter PR executive, Berenson and Twitter engaged in mediation and settlement talks, the details of which the journalist said he is unable to disclose.
But Berenson’s eye has been on a different prize – a ruling by U.S. District Judge William Alsup entitling Berenson to discovery. The order requires Twitter Inc. to hand over any and all communications regarding Berenson, even “nonparty complaints or inquiries about plaintiff” which include “all texts, emails, voicemails, statements, and other documents pertaining to plaintiff.”
This means that if any party, whether in the U.S. government, a pharmaceutical company or otherwise contacted Twitter and complained about Berenson, Twitter is obligated to show that. Furthermore, Berenson is allowed to publicize whatever he finds.
“As we debate the power and political influence of social media companies, this discovery offers a unique opportunity to see how Twitter and the federal government and others may have colluded against my voice,” wrote the journalist in his Substack newsletter. “No one else has this chance. No one. And I am not going to give it up.”
Berenson added that while he will make some sacrifices, he refuses to concede his rights to discovery.
“Not for reinstatement, not for money, not for all the viruses in China. I will NOT agree to any settlement that does not preserve my discovery rights about third-party communications AND give me the right to publicize them. There are other things I will (and have) given up, you have to give to get, but this is the reddest of lines.”
Berenson re-affirmed his pursuit of discovery Wednesday in his newsletter, which he linked to in a tweet.
“The settlement does not end my investigation into the pressures that the government may have placed on Twitter to suspend my account,” he said. “I will have more to say on that issue in the near future. I made a promise to readers last month, and I take my promises to readers seriously.
Billionaire Elon Musk, who is currently in the process of acquiring Twitter, replied to Berenson’s tweet, apparently having read Berenson’s article:
“Can you say more about this: ‘… pressures that the government may have placed on Twitter …’
Last month, America’s Frontline News reported that renowned physician and medical expert Dr. Andrew Bostom, MD, MS Wednesday was suspended by Twitter after posting a recent peer-reviewed study showing the COVID-19 vaccine impairs sperm count in men.
