A North Carolina mom criticized Twitter and its regulations after she came across a poster promoting abortion with a picture of her severely disabled daughter picture splashed across it.
Natalie Weaver reported the hateful tweet posted by user @OBSIDIANSMOAK this week.
The reported message first read: ‘It is okay to think that every child matters however a lot of them do not hence the amnio test.’
The poster went on to say: (It) should be a mandatory test and if it proves negative and the woman does not want to abort then all bills accrued after that is on her and the father.’
A Twitter user shared a pro-abortion poster with a photo of Natalie Weaver’s severely disabled daughter Sophia
Natalie Weaver reported the hateful tweet posted by user @OBSIDIANSMOAK this week
Twitter at first declined the mother’s request to suspend the person’s account
After her report, Twitter initially declined Weaver’s request, and suggested there was anything wrong with the poster.
Weaver received a message that read: ‘Hello, thank you for your recent report. We have reviewed your report carefully and found that there was no violation of the Twitter rules against abusive behavior.’
Furious, Weaver, the founder of Advocates for Medically Fragile Kids North Carolina, took to her page to share her disapproval over the matter.
‘@TwitterSupport Just received an email that Twitter doesn’t think a person using my child’s image as the poster child to ABORT & to weed out all the ‘defectives’ in utero is a violation.
Furious, Weaver took to her social media page to share her disapproval over the matter
The mother is also the founder of Advocates for Medically Fragile Kids North Carolina
The organization’s goal is to ‘educate and empower families to advocate for their medically fragile children’ and make sure children have all of their healthcare needs met, according to the website
‘Why? Bc they won’t recognize hate toward ppl w/ disabilities in their regulations/reports,’ she wrote.
The mother’s message instantly went viral – with hundreds of people showing their support for Weaver and her concerns.
After receiving backlash, Twitter confirmed in a statement that they decided to suspend @OBSIDIANSMOAK’s account.
The social network company said: ‘Our goal is to create a safe environment for everyone on Twitter to express themselves freely. After reviewing your earlier report, it appears as though we missed a violation.
After receiving backlash, Twitter confirmed in a statement that they decided to suspend @OBSIDIANSMOAK’s account
‘We suspended the account you reported as it was found to be participating in abusive behavior. We apologize for this error.’
In a Twitter safety statement published last month, the company explained its current code of conduct regarding hate speech and imagery.
‘Hateful imagery will now be considered sensitive media under our media policy. We consider hateful imagery to be logos, symbols, or images whose purpose is to promote hostility and malice against others based on their race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity/national origin.
‘If this type of content appears in header or profile images, we will now accept profile-level reports and require account owners to remove any violating media.’
Weaver’s nine-year-old daughter Sophia suffers a rare brain disorder, Rett syndrome, which mostly affects girls and is typically found between the age of 1-2, according to WebMD.
Her nine-year-old daughter Sophia suffers a rare brain disorder, Rett syndrome, which mostly affects girls and typically found between the age of 1-2, according to WebMD
‘The Hate & Stares I received when Sophia was a baby were painful & made me hide away for 7yrs,’ Weaver also said Sunday
Symptoms include slowed brain growth, decline of social and language skills, trouble breathing, problems walking and using hands.
Weaver shared to her Twitter page that Sophia also suffers from facial deformities.
‘The Hate & Stares I received when Sophia was a baby were painful & made me hide away for 7yrs,’ she said Sunday, alongside a tearful video message.
‘I decided over a year ago to stand up & fight against this! I will not be silenced by hate! Thank you for supporting us!’