Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf sent a scathing letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey Friday over its recent suspension of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Mark Morgan.
Morgan's account was suspended after he posted a tweet touting the success of the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Twitter temporarily locked Morgan’s account for violating its “hateful conduct” policy after he tweeted that the border wall helps stop “gang members, murderers, sexual predators, and drugs” from entering the United States.
“It’s a fact, walls work,” Morgan wrote, according to screenshots posted by The Federalist.
TWITTER BRIEFLY SUSPENDS CBP COMMISSIONER MARK MORGAN AFTER HE TOUTS SUCCESS OF BORDER WALL
Twitter ultimately lifted the suspension following an appeal and "further evaluation from our team," according to a spokesperson. But that didn't stop Wolf from sending a letter directly to the tech giant's head honcho.
"I write to you about Twitter’s recent censorship of Mark Morgan, the Senior Official Performing the Duties of Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)," Wolf began. "Not only was Twitter’s act of censorship unjustified—the tweet is supported by data—it is disturbing. As the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other Federal agencies continue to rely on Twitter to share important information with the U.S. public, your censorship poses a threat to our security."
"The fact that the tweet was removed and the account locked is startling," Wolf wrote later in the letter. "It is hard to understand how anyone believed Mr. Morgan’s tweet promoted violence, threats or harassment. Especially considering that the facts about the border wall system support the tweet."
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Wolf accused Twitter moderators of being "triggered" by Morgan's tweet and called its removal from the platform "startling."
"Whether you know it or not, CBP guards the front line of the American homeland. CBP repels and arrests thousands of violent criminal gang members each year. CBP rescues young girls who are forced into cross-border sex trafficking. CBP intercepts dangerous drugs and contraband, including enough of the opioid fentanyl to kill every man, woman, and child in the United States several times over," Wolf explained. "CBP fulfills the United States’ most obvious and essential law enforcement and national security responsibility to the people of our country. Your company may choose to be ignorant of these facts, but it is no less censorship when you choose to suppress them."
Still later in the letter, Wolf added: "It is dangerous and damaging when any publisher arbitrarily and unfoundedly decides, as it did here, that the facts and policies of a particular Presidential Administration constitute 'violence'—in order to censor them. And in the case of Twitter, this can cut off an essential mode of communication between U.S. Government officials and the public. In doing so, Twitter is sabotaging public discourse regarding important national and homeland security issues.
"Further, it is clear that Twitter’s gross censorship was intentional, not accidental ... Only after CBP reached out to Twitter’s office of government affairs a second time and went public with this censorship, then finally Twitter admitted its bad judgment and unlocked the account."
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Wolf closed the letter by warning Dorsey to "never again censoring content on your platform and obstructing Americans’ unalienable right to communicate with each other and with their government and its officials, including the thousands of law enforcement officers at the DHS who work vigilantly and diligently to protect your safety every day."
Morgan's brief suspension wasn't the only mea culpa Twitter issued this week. On Friday evening, the social media giant lifted its suspension of the New York Post after a lengthy standoff over the paper's Hunter Biden report.
Fox News' Brian Flood contributed to this report.