Wilders noted in his tweet that leftist party members D-66 were “suckers …who import ever more Islam and then weep crocodile tears over the consequences, such as honor killings.”
A spokesperson for Wilders’ Freedom Party sent out a screenshot of his account showing the ban. PVV member Fleur Agema, confirmed that Wilders was suspended over a tweet about the progressive center-left party D66.
Twitter blockt @geertwilderspvv maar hij zal nooit stoppen de waarheid te spreken! pic.twitter.com/jyH1BHMdJa
— Fleur Agema (@FleurAgemaPVV) May 31, 2019
The anti-immigration politician who can only appear in public with a heavy security escort due to constant death threats by Islamists, relies on social media to communicate with his 81 000 followers – second in numbers only to Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
Another PVV politician, Leon de Jong, noted that violent threats against Wilders have never been blocked.
“Twitter often tolerates death threats against me, but not a factual tweet by me about a colleague. Madness!,” Wilders said in a statement.
The 55-year-old is currently appealing a conviction for “inciting discrimination” after he asked his supporters if they wanted more or less Moroccans in the Netherlands during a rally in 2016. His follwers chanted “fewer! fewer! fewer!” in response.
This week Wilders repeated a similar question on Twitter after a serious assault on two Dutch men by immigrants in Heemskerk. “Do you want more or less of this?” he tweeted.
Both Twitter and Facebook have been accused of an outright anti-conservative bias. US congressman Devin Nunes in March announced that he would file a $250 million lawsuit against Twitter over its “explicit censorship” of conservatives.
According to Nunes, the social network uses “shadow-banning” of right-leaning users, while refusing to take action against “abusive, hateful and defamatory” content from leftists.