Two days ago (Nov. 8th), Twitter made the decision to lock the account of emcee extraordinaire Talib Kweli after he exposed the violent threats and racist remarks made by a white supremacist lawyer from Texas, Jason L Van Dyke.


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Van Dyke, whose Twitter account is now suspended, went under the handles @MeanTXLawyer and @RealJLVD. A tweet he made threatening to lynch a black man and another tweet where he tells a man that his children “are quite a nuisance” and threatens to kill him and his family winded up on Talib Kweli’s radar.

After bearing witness to Van Dyke’s riotous behaviour, Talib took it upon himself to search for his business address and phone number and tweet it out to his 1.15M Twitter following. He found Van Dyke’s information on a website ran by the Texas Bar Association.

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Van Dyke responded with a tweet sharing a photo of him pointing an AR-15 rifle outside of his home/business.

Twitter suspended the account of Van Dyke, but threatened to suspend Kweli’s under the condition of him refraining from deleting the tweet exposing Van Dyke’s business address and phone number. A little less than 24 hours later, Twitter suspended the account of Talib Kweli.

Twitter apparently found Kweli’s posting of Van Dyke’s public business as an act of inciting harassment. Rather than focus concern on Van Dyke’s alarming statements, Twitter was attempting to clear their presence from the plate of responsibility.

On Wednesday, Talib took charge of his Instagram to blast Twitter for the unwarranted suspension of his account, exposing the reality of the turbulent behaviour of white supremacists being normalized on social media.

So @twitter just locked my account because I refused to delete the address and phone number of the lawyer that posted this tweet as well as many other violent tweets about murdering ppl, calling ppl nigger and faggot. I found his info on a website called Findalawyer ran by the Texas bar association. If a lawyer is calling ppl autistic faggot and nigger and threatening to lynch ppl and murder ppls children and I don't post his contact info I am not doing my duty for humanity. This lawyer Jason L Van Dyke was vile enough to be suspended from twitter but what about the community he is supposed to serve? Do they not deserve a way to contact him and ask why he does this? Are racist, violent business owners no longer held accountable in America? Twitter claims i am inciting harassment. Of this fucking guy. If twitter wants to keep this guy protected from accountability they keep their app. It's not needed.

A post shared by Talib Kweli (@talibkweli) on

Talib Kweli is one of the most vocal and candid Twitter users the platform has ever held. From his virtual battles against Nazis to his classroom sessions about racism in America, Kweli’s Twitter account became a forum for raw dialogues between individuals with various schools of thought and backgrounds.

The credibility of Twitter has been questioned on high counts in recent times, especially after verifying the account of Jason Kessler, the organizer of the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virgina and the temporary locking of Harvey Weinstein accuser Rose McGowan, along with President Donald Trump’s constant use of the platform to make executive statements.