Fox News’ Twitter boycott moved into its second week Thursday as the network continued to refrain from posting to the platform.
The network is protesting Twitter for allowing host Tucker Carlson’s home address to spread after protesters targeted his Washington D.C. residence, a Fox News insider told TheWrap. The network wants an apology and assurance of his address being scrubbed.
Fox News last tweeted Nov. 8.
BREAKING: Federal appeals court rules against Trump administration on DACA https://t.co/KHnrNvEKAM
— Fox News (@FoxNews) November 8, 2018
But the network is losing clicks from people who click on its tweeted articles.
“It’s hurting traffic” the insider told TheWrap. “So I dislike that they are doing this.”
The blackout also extends to Fox Business, which hasn’t tweeted since Nov. 9. A rep for the channel did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The network’s decision follows a move first pulled by Fox supreme boss Rupert Murdoch. He announced he was leaving Twitter in March 2016, and never returned.
No more tweets for ten days or ever! Feel like the luckiest AND happiest man in world.
— Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch) March 4, 2016
A second company insider told TheWrap the network’s entire digital operation received an email asking them to refrain from tweeting out Fox News content from their personal accounts “until further notice.” Some Fox News personalities have honored the ban, while others, like Sean Hannity just blew it off from the get-go.
News of the email was first reported by Business Insider. A third company employee told TheWrap that he hoped Fox would continue the boycott.
“My Twitter feed is much nicer without the awful click-bait headlines covering disgusting topics,” he said. “It’s refreshing to have a break from the CNN bashing, anti-immigration hype and constant teacher sex stories.”
Reps for Twitter did not immediately respond to request for comment from TheWrap.
The boycott got rolling last week after several protesters descended on Tucker Carlson’s home in D.C. chanting slogans and warning (self-evidently) that they knew where he lived.
“We are outside your home to protest your fascism and racism,” one man was heard saying on video. Several protesters later chanted: “We know where you sleep at night.”
The harassment was broadly condemned by both the left and the right.
Carlson and his children were not at home, but his wife Susan Andrews was, and hid in the pantry while calling 911. Police later told TheWrap they had opened a criminal investigation, and Carlson blasted the protest on his show, calling the demonstrators “totalitarian.”
Fox News called the protest “reprehensible.”
The incident that took place at Tucker’s home last night was reprehensible. The violent threats and intimidation tactics toward him and his family are completely unacceptable. We as a nation have become far too intolerant of different points of view. Recent events across our country clearly highlight the need for a more civil, respectful, and inclusive national conversation. Those of us in the media and in politics bear a special obligation to all Americans, to find common ground.