Golden Dawn Twitter account suspended

 From Panayote Dimitras for Greek Helsinki Monitor in Athens

On 4 January, Twitter suspended the official account of Greece’s nazi party, Golden Dawn. Greek Helsinki Monitor which had reported the account on 18 December 2017 was notified of the suspension resulting from its reporting it.

Golden Dawn denounced the suspension and wrote a protest letter to Twitter. A week later, the three Golden Dawn Members of the European Parliament tabled a question to the European Commission asking it if it considers such action to be a form of censorship and if so what measures it will take to secure equal access by all political forces.

Greek Helsinki Monitor’s action was taken on the same day Twitter enforced its new policy to reduce hateful and abusive content by suspending accounts affiliated with organisations that – whether by their own statements or activity both on and off the platform – use or promote violence against civilians to further their causes. Alongside the official Golden Dawn account, those of several key leaders of the party were reported but until now Twitter has not acted on these.

According to published information, since 18 December 2017, Twitter has also suspended the accounts of Britain First, American nazis, American white nationalists, Nordic white nationalist and other extremists.