Twitter on Wednesday said it will not reverse its decision to ban far-right activist and self-described “proud Islamophobe” Laura Loomer from its platform after her Republican primary win in Florida.
“The account owner … was permanently suspended for repeated violations of the Twitter Rules, and we do not plan to reverse that enforcement action,” a Twitter spokesperson told The Hill.
Loomer has courted controversy for years with a series of toxic comments that have led her to be banned from several social media platforms. She’s particularly come under scrutiny for a number of blatantly anti-Muslim comments.
After the 2019 mass murder of 51 people in Christchurch, New Zealand, she said on the Telegram messaging app that “nobody cares about Christchurch. I especially don’t.”
In 2017, she tweeted “how many more people need to die before everyone agrees that Islam is cancer & we should never let another Muslim into the civilized world?”
That same year she was banned from Uber and Lyft after she tweeted that “someone needs to create a non Islamic form of @uber or @lyft.”
She was removed from Twitter in November of 2018 after she persistently harassed Rep. Ilhan OmarIlhan OmarProgressives decry Pelosi’s endorsement of Kennedy in Senate primary Ocasio-Cortez hits House Democratic campaign arm after Pelosi endorses Kennedy Pelosi endorses Kennedy in Massachusetts Senate primary challenge MORE (D-Minn.), one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress.
In one of her many tweets about Omar, Loomer claimed that the Somali American supported female genital mutilation because she is Muslim.
A spokesperson for Twitter declined to comment on the exact post or action that triggered Loomer’s removal from the platform.
Loomer will face off against Rep. Lois Frankel (D) in Florida’s 21st Congressional District this fall after winning a crowded primary on Tuesday that included multiple supporters of the QAnon conspiracy theory.
Frankel will be the heavy favorite in the fall given the district’s leanings. She ran unopposed for reelection in 2018.
Loomer very publicly protested her removal from Twitter, handcuffing herself to the front doors of the company’s New York headquarters.
She was removed from Facebook and Instagram in May 2019.
It is not just tech companies that have de-platformed Loomer. Last year, the Conservative Political Action Conference banned her after she used her media credentials to harass reporters.
Despite her history of Islamophobic and otherwise hateful comments, Loomer has been embraced by President Trump
Donald John TrumpTwo ‘The Apprentice’ producers helping with Republican National Convention About 70,000 lives could be saved in near future if people wear masks: researchers Trump issues disaster declaration for California as wildfires rage MORE and some of his most vehement GOP supporters in Congress.
Trump on Tuesday night tweeted that Loomer has “a great chance against a Pelosi puppet” in November, referring to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
Reps. Matt Gaetz
Matthew (Matt) GaetzThe Hill’s Convention Report: Postmaster General grilled | Looking ahead to GOP convention | Trump campaign passes billion in spending Ethics panel rebukes Gaetz for tweet targeting Cohen Loomer win creates bigger problem for House GOP MORE (R-Fla.) and Paul Gosar
Paul Anthony GosarLoomer win creates bigger problem for House GOP Twitter won’t unban far-right activist Laura Loomer after GOP primary win Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar wins GOP primary MORE (R-Ariz.) both endorsed Loomer.
Trump also retweeted Marjorie Taylor Greene, a QAnon believer who also has a history of bigoted remarks that just won her Republican primary in Georgia, when she called for Loomer’s Twitter account to be reinstated.
The QAnon conspiracy theory baselessly claims that Trump is working to expose a group of elites in the Democratic Party and media who are running an international child trafficking scheme.
Greene, who has also has compared Democratic donor George Soros to a Nazi, said the 2018 midterms were like an “Islamic invasion of our government” and asserted that African Americans “are held slaves to the Democratic Party.”
Unlike Loomer, Greene is heavily favored to win her election this fall.
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