The Satanic Temple vs. Twitter

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"I think everybody here can take comfort in knowing that if you're banned on Twitter for calling upon people to report a threat, the appeal process is as simple as having Fox, Newsweek, and other media outlets report upon the outrage for a weekend."

- Lucien Greaves

THE SATANIC TEMPLE FILES COMPLAINT AGAINST TWITTER
FOR RELIGIOUS DISCRIMINATION

THE HISTORY

When a Massachusetts resident asked people on Twitter to burn down the headquarters of The Satanic Temple (TST) in Salem, a tweet that took wing when retweeted by Corey Feldman, Twitter refused to take action and instead, without any justification, suspended both the accounts of TST and TST’s spokesperson and cofounder, Lucien Greaves. Twitter has also ignored requests to verify the accounts of TST and Lucien Greaves. According to Greaves, “The failure of Twitter to verify both accounts, which both clearly meet Twitter’s documented standards for verification, compounded by the suspension of the accounts clearly demonstrates a pattern of hostile discriminatory behavior engaged in by Twitter against The Satanic Temple. It reveals the biased human agency behind a facade of neutral and evenly enforced standards.”

THE ISSUE

While Twitter lifted the suspensions of both the TST and Lucien Greaves accounts after their actions were exposed in mass media, they have still not verified the accounts of either while failing to justify their refusal.

THE COMPLAINT

The Satanic Temple (TST) has filed legal papers with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination alleging that Twitter has engaged in a pattern of discriminatory actions. The complaint charges Twitter with discrimination in a public accommodation on the basis of religion and unlawful retaliation. TST has repeatedly shown that they expect the same legal rights that are afforded to other religious organizations and will seek legal recourse to protect those rights. Click here for the full complaint

THE COUNSEL - Randazza Legal Group

The counsel in this matter is Marc J. Randazza of the Randazza Legal Group. Randazza is a well-known First Amendment attorney who has handled many high-profile First Amendment cases, and who never shies away from an unpopular cause. Randazza said, "When Twitter installed its Orwellian-named ‘Trust and Safety Council,’ free speech advocates sensed immediately that this would become a censorship board. However, none of us could have predicted exactly how discriminatory and arbitrary Twitter would be.” He said, “Twitter has decided who it disfavors, politically, ethnically, and religiously, and they get significantly less free expression rights on Twitter than its favored groups. Enough is enough. Satanists are equal to any other religious adherents under the law, and deserve to be treated equally. If Twitter disagrees, then it should be prepared to explain why its ‘Trust and Safety Council’ believes that it should favor one religion over another – consistent with the Civil Rights laws."

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