Media: Press Release

IAP Statement On The Twitter Suspension of IAP’s Founder Mike Davis

June 7, 2021

WASHINGTON – Mike Davis, founder and president of the Internet Accountability Project (IAP), today released the following statement on his Twitter suspension following an innocuous tweet defending Will Upton, a Big Tech critic and former Trump administration official. Upton was suspended for comparing CNN’s Brian Stelter to the movie character “The Gimp” from Pulp Fiction.

“Twitter sent me to Twitter jail for 12 hours, starting last night, purportedly for sending a tweet defending Will Upton, a Big Tech critic and former Trump administration official. The real reason that Twitter suspended my account is because I lead high-profile advocacy organizations that are taking on Big Tech monopolists (Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Twitter), desperate and flailing Big Media outlets (like CNN), and their woke cancel-culture nonsense, of which both CNN and Twitter are two of the worst proponents, enablers, and enforcers.

“Unfortunately, Big Tech and Big Media collude to censor everyday Americans with whom they disagree. The Internet Accountability Project is fighting for them to oppose Big Tech abuses. You shouldn’t need an advocacy organization and high-profile Swamp connections to exercise your free-speech rights and participate in the online public debates.

“This is the second time that Twitter has suspended my account for what they labeled ‘hatred and violence’ — and it is the second time that Twitter’s Marxist-styled Censorship Department backed down after leading reporters, conservative lawmakers, and social-media influencers expressed outrage.

“The reason that Big Tech has the power to cancel conservatives and other everyday Americans with whom they disagree is because they have too much government-sponsored power. And they have this power through the government’s decision to grant Big Tech antitrust amnesty and Section 230 immunity, both of which must come to an end.”

IAP is a nonprofit conservative advocacy group that holds Big Tech accountable for engaging in egregious business practices like snooping, spying, political bias against conservatives, employee abuses and anticompetitive conduct. Davis previously served as Chief Counsel for Nominations to Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) on the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary and led the Senate confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh and a record number of circuit court judges.

More information on Davis and IAP can be found here.

###