Twitter Strips All Followers From Chalkboard Review, Suspends Their Writers
out why the education publication received its Twitter ban. He actually took to Twitter, through his own personal account, to first announce the ban.
Chalkboard Review co-founder and editor-in-chief, Daniel Buck, is still trying to figure out why the education publication received its Twitter ban. He actually took to Twitter, through his own personal account, to first announce the ban.
“No warning. No explanation. How dare an education account publish any conservative content?!” Buck tweeted. The entire tweet, which can be read below, includes the now-famous “account suspended” reveal that Twitter has sent out to many individuals and businesses in the past. Although Twitter didn’t offer an explanation or ever give Chalkboard Review a warning that they were perilously close to losing their Twitter voice, they did say on the “account suspended” notice that “Twitter suspends accounts which violate Twitter Rules.” The problem with that, according to Buck, is they aren’t sure which rules, if any, were broken to cause the Twitter ban.
Buck does have some thoughts on the Twitter ban matter though. He took to his own Twitter account again to share thoughts on a video he posted. Buck says, “We [Chalkboard Review] made the educational establishment upset.” Buck then goes on to explain why he and his fellow co-founder Tony Kinnett started Chalkboard Review and what their content entails. As he says, “If you go back through our website, there are articles from the left, from the center, and from the right.” And then Buck explains what the problem, in his estimation, truly boils down to. “We also publish conservative takes in education and that is unacceptable in education.”
Chalkboard Review publishes a wide range of diverse voices that cover all areas of education. As Buck listed off, their website has recently published articles concerning “literacy’s impact on poverty” or “a list of books that teachers should read for professional development.” But, as Buck noted when he said the Twitter ban was because they upset the educational establishment, Chalkboard Review also touches on subjects that are, in short, touchy. Hence the Twitter Ban?
In the not-so-distant past, Buck’s organization called out a number of large school districts that were pushing for critical race theory onto teachers and their students. One of these school districts was Indianapolis Public Schools (ISP) and it cause a lot of heat for the district. When it was revealed that ISP first denied teaching critical race theory in their district schools and then directed principals (through an email obtained by the Daily Caller) on how to deny it, the heat turned up. Just imagine how hot that fire burned when the ISP hosted racial equity training for district teachers and the featured guest speaker was none other than Gloria Ladson-Billings, the famous critical race theorist.
Buck spoke to the Daily Caller to express his frustrations. He said he was “particularly frustrated” because there is not one thing about their [Chalkboard Review] Twitter account that is objectionable. He says they are not and never have been a partisan site and again reiterated they were an education publication that runs central and liberal material, but they are also willing to run conservative takes as well. He feels this is what got them the Twitter ban.
24-hours later, Twitter decided to give back to Chalkboard Review their account and access to it. However, they didn’t give it back to them the way it was before. Twitter stripped all their followers from the account. So while they can use their account again, none of their followers will see their posts unless they figure out they’ve been unfollowed and refollow.
According to the Chalkboard Review Twitter page, the “account has just been unsuspended by Twitter.” They even attached the “letter” they received from Twitter, explaining why the account has been restored, claiming after further review, it does not appear that the account is in violation of Twitter Rules.
Although Chalkboard Review regained Twitter access, apparently not everyone associated with the education website was given access. According to their Twitter feed, Chalkboard Review’s scheduling editor, social media director, and social media team have not been given back their access.
