Twitter accused of deleting tweets slamming United Airlines

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Social media outrage pours out over United Airlines incident

United Airlines is facing fierce backlash over incident involving passenger, resulting in the 69-year-old man being wrenched from seat, bloodied and dragged off flight

Twitter is coming under fire for allegedly deleting tweets critical of United Airlines following Sunday’s controversial incident where a passenger was forcibly removed from a flight.

One user, @Jay_Beecher, says that a number of his United-related tweets were deleted, including one poking fun at the airline over the now-notorious incident. “Within seconds of tweeting I noticed that my tweet had disappeared,” he told Fox News. “After rewriting the same tweet numerous more times, I began to suspect that Twitter was censoring/automatically deleting any slightly critical tweets which contained an @United tag.”

POLICE VIOLENTLY DRAG MAN FROM UNITED PLANE AFTER AIRLINE REPORTEDLY OVERBOOKED FLIGHT

“Twitter's policy is to censor/delete any tweet that may cause harm or incite hatred,” said Beecher, noting that his tweet contained neither. The user added that after tweeting out and demanding that Twitter support provide him with an explanation, his complaint also was quickly deleted.

Beecher said that he posted a number of original tweets on the United Airlines controversy, which would normally appear in his primary “Tweets” timeline (in contrast, tweets posted as replies only appear in a user's "Tweets and Replies" timeline). “The second I sent them they disappeared. Then I had to keep posting them and complained to Twitter, until eventually they stopped being deleted,” he said. “It now appears that some may have 'miraculously' reappeared, but not all of them.”

A number of other users say that their tweets on Sunday’s incident have been deleted.

Twitter declined to comment on this story.

A slew of tweets from users criticizing United are clearly visible on the social media giant. Twitter also published a Moment devoted to the United incident Tuesday, which contained direct user footage and content that was highly critical of the airline.

UNITED AIRLINES PR DEBACLE ESCALATES AS #UNITEDJOURNEY CAMPAIGN HIJACKED ON SOCIAL MEDIA

The incident is also sparking controversy elsewhere on the Web. A number of Reddit users complained after a video of the passenger’s removal was taken down from a subreddit earlier this week, Heavy.com reports. In a post the subreddit's moderator said that the video was removed because it broke the subreddit's rules related to police harassment and assault.

United Airlines has been slammed on social media after video footage of the passenger being forcibly removed from the overbooked flight from Chicago to Louisville went viral. In particular, the airline’s #UnitedJourney social media campaign has become a launch pad for intense criticism. The airline kicked off the #UnitedJourney campaign last week in an attempt to get passengers to share their travel photos. Instead, the hashtag is being used to slam the airline and share memes related to Sunday’s now-notorious incident.

Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogers