Easy Come, Easy Go...

Both Mike Lindell and Roger Stone return to Twitter. And just like that...poof

Ever since the disaster from down under (okay that’s Australia, but it sounded good), Elon Musk, put into the ether he was thinking of buying Twitter, the right-wing nutjobs were chomping at the bit. Salivating at the thought of returning to the app and spreading all the misogyny and toxic masculinity their newly tanned scrotums can handle.

The same place they claim is boring since The Former Guy was banished almost a year and a half ago. The same place they say their voices are silenced, by the radical, Marxist, Socialist, Communist, anti-free speech, ‘Murica hating, left. But I guess they got tired of yelling at the clouds – or into the abyss of their echo chambers on Nazi Twitter.

Like many pushing the big lie, including Trump, Lindell was suspended in January of 2021. Twitter says it’s because of repeated misinformation regarding the legitimacy of the 2020 Presidential election. While that may be partially true, the Capitol riot probably played a bigger hand in the decision than admitted. As outrage, backlash and criticism was swift and harsh. Condemning those who allowed their platforms to be used as breeding grounds for propaganda and lies.

Leading up to one of the worst days in this country’s history. And democracy’s. The world watched in horror and disbelief, while the country that had once been a beacon of light for the free and oppressed world alike as an example of freedom – was almost burned to the ground. Literally and figuratively.

It was easy to dismiss Lindell. Always spouting conspiracy theories and incoherent gobbly gook, made it easy to put him in the cuckoo corner. A walking joke who couldn’t get out a full sentence without at least one, self-own.

But he managed to make his way back. According to Bethan Biron of Insider, Lindell made quite an entrance. Announcing on his newly created account:

"Hello everybody, I'M BACK ON TWITTER. My only account is @MikeJLindell! Please RT and FOLLOW to SPREAD THE WORD.”

And spread, the word did – right over to the Twitter police. Just a few short hours later – like a puff of crack smoke – Lindell was gone…AGAIN.

Oh, well. Now on to Stone…

The convicted felon, until getting a last minute pardon from the twice impeached Insurrectionist-in-Chief, that is – is the OG of banned accounts. One of the first members of Trump’s inner circle to be permanently banned on Twitter. A full five years before the likes of Trump, Lindell and many more.

Let’s take a trip down memory lane.

In 2017, Stone went on a nasty, hate and expletive filled rant, against several CNN anchors. Don Lemon, Jake Tapper and contributing analyst Ana Navarro. Angry at the network’s reporting that indictments related to revelations in the Mueller Report, were coming down the pike.

Lemon seemed to bear the brunt of Stone’s vitriol. Telling the African-American anchor he must be “confronted, humiliated, mocked and punished.”

Some quotes of the now-deleted tweets were posted in Deadline. All dated October 28, 2017, Stone:

.@donlemon stop lying about the Clinton’s and Uranium you ignorant lying covksucker!!! you fake news you dumb piece of shit. – Roger Stone (@RogerJStoneJr)

He sounds nice.

Lemon filed a police report with the NYPD for death threats and racial hate thrown his way in the aftermath of Stone’s vitriolic tweetstorm.

But after five years, Stone – like Lindell – created a new account, under another name, to avoid their permanent suspensions. Around 1 am on the account @RogerStoneUSA, Stone tweeted “I’m back bitches.” And like Lindell, it wouldn’t be for long.

Twitter’s policy on ban evasion is pretty explicit. Stating:

You can’t circumvent a Twitter suspension, enforcement action, or anti-spam challenge. This includes any behavior intended to evade any Twitter remediation, such as creating a new account or repurposing an already-existing account.

While Lindell doesn’t strike me as the brightest, Stone I’m about 90% sure knew what he was doing. While he “claim” he was doing it to “prove a point”, what’s his excuse for crying to The Daily Beast earlier in the month that he had been censored on Trump’s newest failure, the social media site Truth Social? Some of Stone’s content had been flagged for being “sensitive.” Posted in TDB:

Who knew that Roger Stone was a bridge too far for a site that hosts insurrectionists and traitors?

In what seems to be a bi-partisan pattern, Stone was also suspended (though temporarily) from Jason ‘Baby Daddy’ Miller’s platform GETTR, in August of 2021. Sending Stone over to yet another right-wing – and equally awful – platform, Gab, to complain:

GETTR actually suspended my account while allowing multiple Roger Stone imitators to continue posting on there [sic] social media site. Steve Bannon buttboi Jason Miller shall sleep with the fishes, figuratively speaking, of course.

Stone’s functions were restored to full capacity on both platforms. Blamed on “glitches.”

While Stone and Lindell were swiftly re-banned on Twitter, this is surely just a sign of things to come. Testing of the waters, so to speak. Testing the limits, and boundaries of policy and terms of service. Musk may be in full troll mode, but he and Twitter haven’t completed their tentative deal. There are still rules in place. Some that many believe have already been broken.

I would advise those itching to follow in their footsteps, to tread lightly, and choose their words carefully. Musk doesn't own Twitter yet. Its terms of service, are still in full effect. So for the time being, the rest of us will breathe a sigh of relief. However brief…