Twitter suspends Babylon Bee account for 'hateful conduct' over satirical article about Rachel Levine, CEO reacts: 'Truth is not hate speech'

Satirical news website Babylon Bee was reportedly suspended from Twitter on Sunday for what the social media platform determined to be "hateful conduct."

Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon revealed that Twitter had "locked out" the fake news publisher from its official account for alleged "hateful conduct.”

According to the notice, Twitter suspended the Babylon Bee for writing: "The Babylon Bee's Man Of The Year Is Rachel Levine."

The tweet included a link to a Babylon Bee article published on Tuesday, which had the same headline as the tweet.

Last March, the Senate confirmed Dr. Rachel Levine as President Joe Biden's assistant secretary of health at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) – becoming the first openly transgender official ever confirmed by the upper chamber.

The Babylon Bee article reads, "Levine is the U.S. assistant secretary for health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where he serves proudly as the first man in that position to dress like a western cultural stereotype of a woman. He is also an admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. What a boss!"

"Rachel's original name is Richard Levine, but he changed it to Rachel for some strange reason a few years ago. Who cares? Who says a dude as accomplished as this can't be named 'Rachel?' This king doesn't care what people think about him," the piece jokes. "He often wears a dress, which some people think is weird—but he doesn't care one bit. Come on! Men in India wear dress-type garments, don't they?"

The article was parodying USA Today naming Levine as one of its "Women of the Year."

"Rachel Levine is one of USA Today's Women of the Year, a recognition of women across the country who have made a significant impact," the USA Today article reads.

Dillon shared a screencap of the suspension notice on his verified Twitter account.

Twitter declared that the account would not be able to tweet, retweet, like other tweets, or follow accounts. Dillon noted that Twitter said it would restore the account with more than 1.3 million followers within 12 hours after the Babylon Bee had deleted the tweet in question.

However, Dillon declared that his company would stand by the tweet.

"We're not deleting anything," Dillon proclaimed. "Truth is not hate speech. If the cost of telling the truth is the loss of our Twitter account, then so be it."

Babylon Bee editor-in-chief Kyle Mann reacted to the suspension by tweeting, "We at @TheBabylonBee stated the fact that a man is a man, through satire, and got locked out of this platform for it. We are living in a clown world."

Twitter claims the satirical post violated the big tech company's hateful conduct policy.

You may not promote violence against or directly attack or threaten other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, caste, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease. We also do not allow accounts whose primary purpose is inciting harm towards others on the basis of these categories.

In October, the Biden administration named Levine as the "first-ever female four-star admiral" of the U.S. Public Health Services Commissioned Corps.

A few days later, Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) had his Twitter account "censored" for calling Levine a "man."

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) was also suspended for saying that Levine is a "man."

Earlier this month, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was flagged for "hateful conduct" by Twitter for calling Levine a biological male.