Did Twitter make a rule that users may not display the flag of Ukraine on their profile because it is considered a political statement against Russia? No, that's not true: A post from Walter Report contained a fabricated image which appeared to be a screenshot of a notification from Twitter. A day later, Walter Report published a notice that this is not a Twitter policy "yet."
The fabricated screenshot (archived here) was published by @walter_report on February 25, 2023. The tweet was captioned:
You can't be serious, @elonmusk?
Now you're censoring the [Ukraine Flag]?
Has anyone else gotten this popup yet or is it only us?
This is how the tweet appeared at the time of this article's writing:
(Image source: Twitter screenshot taken on Mon Feb 27 15:12:12 2023 UTC)
The fabricated notification includes images of typical action buttons one might see in a Twitter notification, labeled "Get Started" and "Skip for now". The fake notice reads:
You must remove the [Ukraine Flag] from your profile
Only Twitter Blue subscribers can visibly support Ukraine. It'll just take a few minutes to remove it. Displaying this flag is considered a political statement against Russia, and as a neutral platform, we must moderate any political bias. Learn more about our new community guidelines.
To avoid losing access to Twitter, remove the [Ukraine Flag] from your profile by February 28th, 2023.
A thread of 14 additional tweets about Elon Musk, Russia, and supporting Ukraine were posted by Walter Report -- which publishes a newsletter that describes itself as "A Ukrainian's perspective on the latest news of Russia's invasion of Ukraine" -- on February 25, 2023. On February 26, 2023 Walter Report published a follow-up tweet (archived here) which clarified that "Twitter is NOT banning the Ukraine Flag. "This tweet did not specify that the original false notice was satire or a fabrication but it appears they intended to use the fake notice to make a point. The follow-up tweet reads:
Twitter is NOT banning the [Ukraine Flag]... yet. The fact that it's so believable Musk would do this is serious though.
Musk's actions and tweets speak louder than fake memes and have real consequences for Ukraine.
A real threat to democracy is Musk echoing his far-right besties' russian propaganda.
This is how that tweet appeared at the time of this article's writing:
(Image source: Twitter screenshot taken on Mon Feb 27 15:12:12 2023 UTC)
