James Woods gets Twitter time-out over political hoax meme, refuses to delete it

James Woods has been given a time-out from Twitter over a political hoax meme he posted in July that he refuses to delete.

The 71-year-old actor, who uses the social media site to share his conservative political views, was told he violated the company’s terms by sharing a hoax campaign encouraging men not to vote in this year’s midterm elections. He told the Associated Press that he received an email saying the post “has the potential to be misleading in a way that could impact an election.” He says he was told that he would regain access to his account if he deleted the post, but would remain locked out if he didn’t. He also said he was told that similar offenses would lead to a permanent ban.

“Free speech is free speech — it’s not Jack Dorsey’s version of free speech,” Woods told the AP, referring to the Twitter co-founder and CEO. “The irony is, Twitter accused me of affecting the political process, when in fact, their banning of me is the truly egregious interference. Because now, having your voice smothered is much more disturbing than having your vocal cords slit. If you want to kill my free speech, man up and slit my throat with a knife, don’t smother me with a pillow.”

Woods said his tweet — which claimed to be from a Democratic group, but was apparently a hoax campaign targeted at liberal men — was reposted by his girlfriend, Sara Miller, over the weekend and since was retweeted 14,000-plus times. Yet the account wasn’t locked and his was.

Miller has posted many tweets about Woods’s lockout, including one with an email that the star sent his friends following the temporary ban.

His girlfriend also made it clear he wouldn’t be deleting any tweets.

“I wish this were about an unknown Twitter user so that I could be even more passionate about it,” Woods told the AP. “This is not about a celebrity being muzzled. This is about an American being silenced — one tweet at a time.”

In addition to having the support of his girlfriend, he has President Trump’s son Donald Jr. in his corner. The younger Trump tweeted that Woods’s blocking is an obvious example of “bias” and an attempt to “silence a strong conservative voice.”

A spokesperson for Twitter told the AP that the company does not comment on individual accounts for privacy and security reasons.

In July, Woods says, he was dropped by his “liberal” agent over his political beliefs — and posted the exchange between them on Twitter. Since then, he’s sparred with Stormy Daniels’s attorney Michael Avenatti on the social media site. Woods and Trump Jr. also teamed up to attack comedian Chelsea Handler‘s sex life in a series of posts in August.

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