Why Zero Hedge Has Been Permanently Suspended From Twitter

One of the most popular accounts in the financial Twitter world, better known to most as "FinTwit," has been permanently suspended.

The Twitter Inc TWTR account associated to Zero Hedge, the controversial but widely followed blog for finance, economics and political analysis, was suspended Friday for "violating rules against abuse and harassment." The account has more than 670,000 followers.

Zero Hedge posted a story earlier this week "that doxxed a Chinese scientist and strongly suggested without evidence that the scientist created the strain of coronavirus that’s currently spreading around the world," according to The Verge. "That blog lists a name, photo, email, and phone number that are reportedly tied to the scientist, and suggested that readers 'pay [him] a visit' if they wanted to know 'what really caused the coronavirus pandemic.'"

BuzzFeed was first to report on the Zero Hedge story, in a report titled "A Pro-Trump Blog Doxed A Chinese Scientist It Falsely Accused Of Creating The Coronavirus As A Bioweapon."

The Zero Hedge author known as Tyler Durden told Bloomberg he believed the suspension was “unjustified, and likely motivated by reasons other than the stated ones.”

Durden also shared his thoughts in a Zero Hedge post:

"In any case, we have emailed Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, who incidentally happens to follow zerohedge...... for the answer. If we get one, we will promptly share it with our readers. We aren't holding our breath, however, as we realize how important it is to today's media giants not to ruffle too many Chinese feathers or lack losing access to the Chinese market ... we don't plan on "rethinking" any of our articles just to curry favor with the powerful and we certainly will continue our own "investigative efforts", even if it means we lose some of our inbound traffic."