Twitter reinstates the account of the former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson after a long legal battle
In a major victory for free speech, Twitter has reinstated the account of the Former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson after a long court battle. Berenson and Twitter reached a settlement last month. We first covered the story back in December 2021 when Berenson filed a lawsuit against Twitter after he was permanently banned for correctly stating that covid “vaccine doesn’t stop inflection or transmission”
In an email to thousands of his fans, Berenson wrote:
“Let’s get the official statement – the reinstatement statement – out of the way first: The parties have come to a mutually acceptable resolution. I have been reinstated. Twitter has acknowledged that my tweets should have not led to my suspension at that time.”
Berenson also added: “To recap: Last August, Twitter banned me after I got five strikes under its Covid-19 misinformation policy. Which meant I’d supposedly made “claims of fact” that were “demonstrably false or misleading” and “likely to impact public safety or cause serious harm” (that’s the policy, that’s what it takes to get a strike, look it up). Now we come to find those tweets “should not have led to my suspension”? Oopsie. Hey, everybody makes mistakes.”
In a pinned post this morning, Berenson also tweeted:
“It doesn’t stop infection. Or transmission. Don’t think of it as a vaccine. Think of it – at best – as a therapeutic with a limited window of efficacy and terrible side effect profile that must be dosed IN ADVANCE OF ILLNESS.
And we want to mandate it?
Insanity.”
It doesn’t stop infection.
Or transmission.Don’t think of it as a vaccine.
Think of it – at best – as a therapeutic with a limited window of efficacy and terrible side effect profile that must be dosed IN ADVANCE OF ILLNESS.
And we want to mandate it?
Insanity.— Alex Berenson (@AlexBerenson) July 6, 2022
We first wrote about Berenson back in June 2020 after his book was censored and banned by retail giant Amazon. A few days later, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and other public figures came to his defense, and Amazon later reversed its decision.
But the censorship didn’t end there. About a month later, Twitter suspended Berenson for one week after he tweeted the results of the Pfizer clinical test. In a statement, Berenson said:
“For this tweet, which is completely accurate and does nothing but quote PFIZER’S OWN CLINICAL TRIAL DATA. Welcome to the Brave New World. I probably have about one strike left after this. And it’s gonna go quick. If you care about free speech, protest to Twitter, not that it will matter. And please, please, please tell everyone to sign up here. I will do as much as I can on here.”
His account was reinstated the following day but he wasn’t out of the woods yet. A few days later, Berenson posted a series of tweets spotlighting an Israeli preprint study that showed that natural immunity from a prior Covid-19 infection is 13 times more effective than vaccines against the delta variant. The tweets went viral with about three million impressions and over a quarter-million people interacted with the tweets before Twitter took them down.
Then on August 29, Twitter permanently suspended him after he posted a tweet that vaccines don’t stop infection or transmission. In the tweet, Berenson stated:
“It doesn’t stop infection. Or transmission.”
In a statement, Berenson said, “Yes, that was Twitter banning me for writing that ‘It doesn’t stop infection. Or transmission.’” He went on to explain that the New England Journal of Medicine said the same thing he said but wasn’t banned. He also included a screenshot of the article.
Hey, check out this “Perspective” piece that ran yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), maybe’s the world’s top medical journal:
In an email to his fans on SubStack, Berenson said, “Can’t wait to see Twitter’s lawyers try to explain this.” Meanwhile, NEJM is not the only organization saying that vaccines don’t stop infection or transmission. Just last month, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said that the current vaccines do not stop transmission of the virus.