Twitter's logo may be a blue bird, but it's latest actions have many wondering whether red elephants are running the show.
A parody Twitter account, @FiredBigBird, created after Mitt Romney confessed that even though he loves Big Bird he would be in favor of cutting funding to PBS to help alleviate the budget deficit, managed to rack up 26,000 followers. The account spewed off a string of funny jabs directed at Romney and vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan, one of which read:
Then, sometime this morning, it was gone. And everyone sort of freaked out. MSNBC political analyst, Joan Walsh, tweeted:
Seriously, did @twitter suspend @firedbigbird?
It did. And no one really knew why.
Soon, similar parody accounts popped up including @FiredElmo and @FiredOscar, both of which were also suspended by 4 PM today.
A Washington Post reporter received an email from someone going by the name "Zendesk," which said the account was suspended for "sending multiple unsolicited messages using the @reply and/or mention feature."
However, after the Post spoke with the owner of the account, a 28-year-old guy from the D.C. area, reported that the account was taken down as a "result of an automatic function and not an attempt to suppress free speech." There's no word on what happened to the other two.
The three accounts remain suspended. But there's hope still for the Sesame Street gang. Two new accounts were created today to fight the good fight: @firedcmonster and @firedberternie.
We'll see if they make it to tomorrow.
