Twitter briefly suspends Spanish politician for saying 'a man cannot get pregnant'

Madrid, Spain, May 19, 2021 / 13:01 pm

Twitter briefly suspended last week Francisco José Contreras, a member of Spain’s Congress of Deputies from the far right Vox party, for breaking its hate speech rules.

He had posted: “a man cannot get pregnant. A man does not have a uterus or eggs.”

The May 11 suspension lasted 12 hours, and Twitter warned him that "repeated breaches can lead to permanent suspension of your account."

Contreras' post took place in the context of the debate on a bill that would have allowed those who identify as transgender to change their identity on government documents with no need for a medical certificate or court approval.

The bill was blocked in the Congress of Deputies, the lower house of Spain’s parliament, by a May 18 vote.

Contreras said on Facebook that Twitter accused him of breaking its rules, “specifically, for the following reasons: Breaking the rules that prohibit hate speech." 

"It is not allowed to threaten, harass or promote violence against other people because of their race, ethnic origin, nationality, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religion, age, disability or illness," Twitter stated.

On Facebook, Contreras slammed Twitter for forcing him to delete his post to keep his account active, commenting,  “you can see this is already fascist biology.  Next time I'll try 2 +2 = 4.”

Vox opposes abortion, same-sex marriage, and gender ideology. It is an opposition party in the parliament, though the government is a minority coalition.

Countries such as Hungary and Poland are considering regulations that would prevent social media from censoring content that does not go against the laws of their countries.

In January, the Prime Minister of Poland, Mateusz Morawiecki, declared, "there is not and cannot be consent to censorship."

"The algorithms or the owners of corporate giants should not decide which views are correct and which are not.”