Far-right activist Laura Loomer protested her recent permanent suspension from Twitter by handcuffing herself to the front door at the company’s New York City office on Thursday afternoon.
Wearing a yellow Star of David on her sweater and carrying a sign reading “Jew hatred? A-ok! Nosey Jew? Banned” with the Twitter logo attached, Loomer told onlookers “enough is enough” when it comes to the company’s treatment of right-wing voices.
“You’re censoring and banning conservatives!” Loomer yelled while facing the office’s entrance. “You’re evil.”
Loomer’s account was purged last week after lambasting recently-elected Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). Loomer called Omar — a Somali refugee and one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress — “anti Jewish” in a tweet, soon after Omar had said she supported the Israel “boycott, divestment, and sanctions” movement.
“Ilhan is pro Sharia Ilhan is pro-[female genital mutilation],” Loomer tweeted. “Under Sharia, homosexuals are oppressed & killed. Women are abused & forced to wear the hijab. Ilhan is anti Jewish.”
On Thursday, Loomer blasted Twitter for kicking off several prominent conservatives while failing to remove Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who compared Jews to termites in a video shared on social media last month. Twitter decided against following in Facebook’s footsteps after the social network hit Farrakhan with a one-month suspension for violating the company’s “hate speech policies.”
“I’m not going to leave, I’ll be out here all night. I’ll be out here for days if that’s what it takes,” Loomer shouted on Thursday. “I want to know why I was banned on Twitter but Louis Farrakhan still has his account.”
She then asked when Congress would take action against social platforms that were “silencing” conservatives.
“There is a terrible double standard that exists at Twitter, where if you’re a liberal or a Muslim, you’re allowed to say and do whatever you want,” Loomer continued. “Whether that’s calling for Jew hatred, calling Jews termites, calling for terrorist attacks, [or] inciting jihad like Linda Sarsour, right?”
Loomer’s stunt quickly turned into a spectacle. The police offered to cut Loomer free if she wanted to leave, because she’d lost her handcuff keys and Twitter was declining to press any charges, according to The Daily Beast reporter Will Sommer.
“We notified the relevant authorities who responded. The account holder was suspended for violating our policies. We apply the Twitter Rules impartially and not based on ideology,” a Twitter spokesperson told TheWrap.
Counter-protesters showed up to mock Loomer. At one point, some Gizmodo employees heckled Loomer, according to CNN.
Loomer’s banishment added to a growing list of conservatives removed from Twitter in the past two months. Most notoriously, digital shock jock Alex Jones was kicked off Twitter in September for violating its policy against “abusive behavior.” Jones had criticized CNN reporter Oliver Darcy, saying he had “the eyes of a rat,” among other things.