Babylon Bee Makes Triumphant Return to Twitter After Elon Musk Agrees to #FreeTheBee

by Zachary Mettler | November 23, 2022 | Free Speech

Everyone’s favorite Christian satire website The Babylon Bee has made a triumphant return to Twitter, following megabillionaire Elon Musk’s purchase of the social media platform.

The Bee had been locked out of Twitter for eight whole months beginning on March 20, 2022, for allegedly violating the platform’s rules against “hateful conduct.”

It was locked out for a March 16, 2022, post that read, “The Babylon Bee’s Man of the Year is Rachel Levine.”

The Bee’s post was satirizing USA Today’s selection of Dr. Rachel Levine as one of its “Women of the Year 2022.” Dr. Levine is not a woman.

As the Daily Citizen has previously written, “Dr. Levine was born male, lived as Richard Levine for more than 50 years, married, and fathered two children. The doctor began ‘transitioning’ around 2008 and announced his ‘transgenderism’ around 2011.”

“Levine became U.S. assistant secretary for health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in March 2021 and was appointed as a four-star Admiral to head up the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps in October 2021.”

After being locked out, The Babylon Bee was not able to share anything on Twitter from March 20 through November 19. The Bee could have chosen to delete the “offending” tweet to regain access to their account. But the site refused to yield to Twitter’s previous speech codes.

“Kathie Griffin, Jordan Peterson & Babylon Bee have been reinstated,” Musk tweeted on November 18. “Trump decision has not yet been made.”

Seth Dillon, CEO of The Babylon Bee, wrote on November 20 that Twitter’s attempt to censor The Bee seems to have backfired.

“The Bee will hit 2 million followers soon. We had 1.5 million when Twitter first locked us up,” Dillon wrote.

“We now have more followers, reach, and revenue than ever before – not because we acquiesced, but because we stubbornly refused to bend the knee for tyrants.”

On November 19, after 15 million people voted in Musk’s Twitter poll on whether former President Donald J. Trump should be reinstated on Twitter – 51.8% voted yes – Musk tweeted the following: “The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated. Vox Populi, Vox Dei.”

On November 22, Musk pointed out the leftist bias that had previously infected Twitter and was obvious to anyone paying attention to who Twitter was targeting for suspensions.

“As is obvious to all but the media, there is not one permanent ban on even the most far left account spouting utter lies,” Musk tweeted.

On November 22, Musk shared that he had uncovered a closet at Twitter headquarters full of t-shirts and sweatshirts with the text, “#StayWoke.”

Found in closet at Twitter HQ fr 🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/3xSI3KvvHk

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 23, 2022

Back in December 2021, Elon Musk sat down with The Babylon Bee for a wide-ranging interview after Musk had become a fan of The Bee’s content, frequently replying to their content on Twitter.

Was Twitter’s decision to ban The Bee part of the impetus for Musk’s decision to purchase the social media platform to the tune of $44 billion? We may never know.

What is clear is that free speech is making a huge comeback on Twitter. Will other social media platforms, like Facebook, soon see the light and restore free speech as well? Or will they double down on censoring conservative voices and imposing a leftist orthodoxy online? That’s something we may soon find out.