Antifa has suddenly found itself facing a crackdown on Twitter.
In January 2021, Twitter deleted four violent Antifa accounts to address criticism that the platform was allowing users to promote and encourage politically motivated left-wing violence. However, it seemed that Twitter only took this action as a one-time act of public relations damage control. After those four, Twitter backed off, and hundreds of other Antifa accounts continued promoting violence with impunity.
Nearly two years later, with Twitter under different ownership, notoriously violent Antifa accounts are suddenly being banned.
This time, the bans seem to reflect actual policy changes. The days of Antifa using Twitter to promote and direct criminal violence openly may be over.
The Olympia, Washington-based Antifa publishing company @Crimethinc was banned. Their office space burned to the ground in 2021. They used the fire to generate $60k in donations from GoFundMe. They most likely received a large insurance payout as well.
The group publishes training materials on how to conduct criminal riots. Crimethinc is blaming investigative journalist Andy Ngo for the ban.
Further, Crimethinc has a network of twelve other Twitter accounts. Most are accounts for individual countries. Nine of these accounts have also been banned. Crimethinc accounts for Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Czechia, England, and Denmark have been banned. A Crimethinc podcast account has been banned. Only Crimethinc Austria, Crimethinc Haunted North, and Crimethinc HotwireWeekly remain.
The account of Portland-based convicted felon Alexander Dial was banned. The account was @BetaCuck4Life.
The account of Portland-based fugitive Jarred Huber was banned. The account was @digitpowell. The Portland police currently want Huber on a felony warrant for first-degree arson.
The Portland-based Antifa account @AshRedacted was banned. Immediately before being banned, this account sent multiple tweets urging attacks on facilities connected to Tesla.
The account of Los Angeles-based Antifa activist Chad Loder was banned. The account was @chadloder.
