The executive director of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, Daniel McAdams, has been permanently banned from Twitter for using the words “stupid” and “retarded”. If average Twitter - and Facebook users got suspended for writing the word stupid in updates or tweets. We could shut down all social media websites today. If it can happen to Daniel, it can happen to you and me. Please sign this petition. We need to send a strong social message to Jack Dorsey and Twitter, that Daniel McAdams suspension is ridiculous and we want McAdams back on Twitter. Daniel McAdams: one of the leading non-interventionist voices in America. Daniel McAdams is the Executive Director of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity. He served as foreign affairs advisor to US Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas) from 2001 until Dr. Paul’s retirement at the end of 2012. 1993-1999, McAdams worked as a journalist based in Budapest, Hungary. He served as special rapporteur for the British Helsinki Human Rights Group, while monitoring human rights and elections in different countries, this include Albania during the 1996-1998 civil unrest, Armenia, Belarus, Croatia, Georgia, Montenegro, and Slovakia. He was a Phillips Foundation Journalism Fellow and an American Swiss Foundation “Young Leader”. McAdams is one of the fiercest opponents of interventionist foreign policy, his record speaks for itself, he is an inspiration to human rights activists everywhere

What happened?:

August 29, Daniel McAdams got banned from Twitter, because he wrote talk-show host Sean Hannity was stupid. Daniel McAdams noticed Sean Hannity was wearing two lapel pins, one of which appeared to be a CIA lapel pin, while Hannity “challenged the deep state”. In America, the term deep state refer to a conspiracy theory, which suggest a hidden government within the legitimate elected government. Daniel McAdams is a professional journalist and humanitarian, he was only trying to protect American viewers from fake news and conspiracy theories. Why McAdams tweeted: “Visiting a friend, watching @seanhannity. And hour “challenging the deep state” while wearing a CIA lapel? This is what called misdirection. America are you so stupid, you listen to someone attacking the deep state while wearing a CIA lapel pin?” Someone else tweeted about how stupid Hannity was. McAdams replied back and wrote: “@seanhannity. He’s also super retarded- My IQ dipped 18 points in a half hour”. Daniel McAdams received a notification that his Twitter account: “has been suspended and will not be restored”, because he had violated Twitter’s Term of Service, particular the Twitter Rules against hateful conduct. I have checked Twitter’s Term of Service and “it is against our rules to promote violence or directly attack or threaten other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disabilities, or serious disease”, the notification reads: “Additionally, if we determine that the primary purpose of an account is to incite harm towards others on the basis of the these categories; that account may be suspended without prior warning”. Based on my professional opinion, Sean Hannity was merely insulted with a pejorative, but he doesn’t have any disabilities and wasn’t attacked or harmed in any way. Many people have used far more derogatory words to describe television programs or other people on Twitter, but they never received a permanent ban. I will argue, that McAdams permanent suspension represent a heavier penalty than were applicable at the time his “offenses” was committed, and that his consumer rights may have been breached. Daniel McAdams suspension is ridiculous and we need McAdams back on Twitter, where he belongs.

What are the stakes and why you should care

I am assuming Twitter want to be a platform, where people feel safe, secure and free speech flourish, but rigid and overzealous internet censorship is wrong. People are people, we are not diplomats, who took digital media classes. Sometimes people allow things like a political program or the performance of their favorite team affect their emotions. 41% of Twitter users will go to Twitter to talk about sport teams, bands or political television shows, that they love or hate. Maybe, people aren’t communicating directly, while they are watching a political debate or an average television program, but they use hashtags and retweets to interact and for a brief, magical moment they belong to a bigger group. They’re not sitting alone and silently watching a program at home, but they are connected with other people from around the world. They are sharing their thoughts, feelings, fears, hopes for the future. Online debates are messy, chaotic and very often unfulfilling, but people are still talking, sharing, connecting and that’s the most important thing. Twitter used to be the home of political debates and everyday conversations, but all this changed when Daniel McAdams got banned for voicing his opinion about a Fox News show. Free speech and freedom died a little that day on August 29, 2019. We need to reclaim our free speech zone and send a social message to Twitter and Jack Dorsey, that censorship and banning people is not the solution. We can’t afford to lose, because debates ends, free speech ends, freedom itself ends and oppression begins, when people’s popular or unpopular opinions are censored and they get banned from social media websites.