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Wearing yellow star, banned far-right activist cuffs self to Twitter office
Conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer throws away key, but eventually asks police to cut her free after a couple of hours of accusing social media platform of anti-Semitism
Yelling “Twitter hates Jews” and wearing a yellow star of the type forced upon Jews by the Nazis, a far-right activist chained herself to the door of Twitter’s Manhattan offices to protest the social media platform’s decision to ban her.
After claiming to have thrown her key away and threatening to pee on herself, alt-right commentator Laura Loomer eventually began complaining about the cold and asked police to cut her free, which they did, according to local reports.
Loomer, who described herself as a “conservative Jewish journalist,” was kicked off Twitter earlier this month after she tweeted that Minnesota Rep.-elect Ilhan Omar was “anti-Jewish” and “pro-Sharia.”
During her protest, which was live-streamed on Periscope starting at 3:45 p.m. local time, she held up placards protesting Twitter banning her while allowing others like anti-Semitic black nationalist Louis Farrakhan to remain on the micro-blogging platform.
https://twitter.com/DrJaneRuby/status/1068244147272859648?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1068244147272859648&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nbcnews.com%2Fnews%2Fus-news%2Ffar-right-activist-laura-loomer-handcuffs-herself-twitter-s-new-n941891
“It’s almost as if Twitter hates Jews and conservatives,” Loomer said, according to Business Insider. “When is [Twitter CEO] Jack Dorsey going to stop censoring conservatives? When am I going to get my Twitter back? I’ll be here as long as it takes.”
“If I have to, I’ll pee on myself,” she told the Verge website. “I haven’t eaten or drunken today.”
While police formed a cordon around her, they told The Verge that Twitter had not complained and thus she could stay there as long as she likes. At about 6 p.m. she asked them to use bolt cutters to cut her free, which they did.
She was not arrested, and Twitter has not pressed charges.
“We have notified the relevant authorities who are responding. The account holder was suspended for violating our policies. We apply the Twitter Rules impartially and not based on ideology,” Twitter said in a statement, according to NBC News.
Unsurprisingly, the protest went viral, though Loomer, who can’t get on Twitter, may not know it.
how the internet is reacting to laura loomer right now pic.twitter.com/gEukTWNyO4
— Brett Banditelli is tired – it ain't over yet (@banditelli) November 29, 2018
Twitter is not the first company to ban the anti-Muslim firebrand. In November 2017, ride-share services Uber and Lyft deactivated her accounts after she made anti-Muslim comments about drivers.
“Someone needs to create a non-Islamic form of @uber or @lyft because I never want to support another Islamic immigrant driver,” Loomer tweeted at the time.
JTA contributed to this report.
