Twitter has blocked Sen. Tim Scott’s (R-SC) “Uncle Tim” trending topic Thursday after he delivered the rebuttal speech to President Joe Biden on Wednesday.
“This is in line with our policies on Trends… to promote healthy conversations on Twitter. This means that at times, we may not allow or may temporarily prevent content from appearing in Trends until more context is available,” the Twitter spokesperson told Fox News. “This includes Trends that violate The Twitter Rules.”
Fox News also asked Twitter “why it took so long to block a phrase that violated its policies,” but the Twitter spokesperson declined to say, only confirming they will be “blocking the phrase … from appearing in Trends.”
“Uncle Tim” is trending on Twitter right now because apparently it’s okay to use racist epithets as long as they’re directed at a Republican.
— Eddie Zipperer (@EddieZipperer) April 29, 2021
Scott delivered his rebuttal to Biden on Wednesday night, in which he blasted Democrats for focusing on controversial issues such as police reform without working with Republicans on bipartisan solutions.
He also denounced Democrat attacks against Georgia’s election laws, contending the newly passed bill ensures the integrity of Georgia’s elections while allowing Georgians to vote.
“If you actually read this law, it’s mainstream,” the senator said. “It will be easier to vote early in Georgia than in Democrat-run New York.”
Scott also said that America is a country of redemption that the United States is not a fundamentally racist nation.
“Hear me clearly: America is not a racist country,” Scott said. “It’s backwards to fight discrimination with different types of discrimination, and it’s wrong to try to use our painful past to dishonestly shut down debates in the present.”
Despite his defense of America, many leftists took to Twitter to attack Scott, which led to the term “Uncle Tim” to trend on Twitter. “Uncle Tim” refers to the character “Uncle Tom” in the novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin written by abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe. In the novel, Stowe portrays Uncle Tom as an overly subservient figure.
The “Uncle Tim” trend raises questions about Twitter’s management of its trending topics, considering that a report found Twitter has a “search blacklist” and a “trends blacklist” used to moderate users and trending topics on the platform.
Many conservative pundits and others quickly denounced Twitter for allowing what they call a “racist attack” against the sole black Senate Republican.
“Twitter is choosing to trend a racist attack from the left on Sen. Tim Scott, the black Republican senator from South Carolina,” Mollie Hemingway, a senior editor at the Federalist, wrote Wednesday.
“Twitter is still out here going out of its way to make racist attacks against GOP Sen. Tim Scott go viral,” Hemingway added. “Apparently they want him to suffer for the crime of upstaging Biden via a highly effective speech. Disgusting.”
Twitter is still out here going out of its way to make racist attacks against GOP Sen. Tim Scott go viral. Apparently they want him to suffer for the crime of upstaging Biden via a highly effective speech. Disgusting. pic.twitter.com/zwXYyowdIX
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) April 29, 2021
Will Ricciardella, a digital entertainment editor for the Washington Examiner, asked rhetorically, “Not only does this not violate Twitter’s hate speech policy they’re actually allowing it as a trending topic Says a lot about the left, doesn’t it?”
Not only does this not violate Twitter’s hate speech policy they’re actually allowing it as a trending topic
Says a lot about the left, doesn’t it? https://t.co/Xr4g3SNkz6
— Will Ricciardella (@WillRicci) April 29, 2021
“It’s because Twitter is run by left-wing Democrats who believe hatred of Republicans justifies any and all behavior. The entire platform revolves around attacking Republicans,” Sean Davis, a cofounder of the Federalist, wrote.
It’s because Twitter is run by left-wing Democrats who believe hatred of Republicans justifies any and all behavior. The entire platform revolves around attacking Republicans. https://t.co/hfX2FULcMY
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) April 29, 2021
Stephen Miller, a conservative pundit, wrote, “We’re out here calling Tim Scott an Uncle Tom to prove to him that we are in fact a very racist country” Doing great, guys.”
“We’re out here calling Tim Scott an Uncle Tom to prove to him that we are in fact a very racist country”
Doing great, guys.
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) April 29, 2021
“Disgusting,” Benny Johnson, the chief creative officer for Turning Point USA, wrote.
Disgusting https://t.co/7oAIGodo6i
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) April 29, 2021
Scott said in his speech that he had experienced a “different kind of intolerance,” or racism directed at him from the left.
He said, “I get called “Uncle Tom” and the N-word — by ‘progressives’! By liberals!”
Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.
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