I reported earlier that many Americans were troubled by Kamala Harris and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) hoisting a Ukrainian flag aloft in the House chamber that they had received from Volodymyr Zelensky. On top of that, Pelosi handed Zelensky a folded American flag in a case.

Many thought it unseemly to be raising the flag of Ukraine in the chamber, given the failure to uphold the defense of the U.S. border. Not to mention giving the American flag to a foreign leader looked like it was marking a surrender or death of the United States.

Zelensky gives Nancy Pelosi a Ukrainian flag and a big kiss on the cheek pic.twitter.com/mutaCY5HvT

— John Hudson (@John_Hudson) December 22, 2022

If America Last were a picture. pic.twitter.com/opJ02v9los

— David Giglio (@DavidGiglioCA) December 22, 2022

Several people commented along the lines that it showed “America last” in the eyes of the Democrats, that another country was more important than our own to the Democrats, or words of that sort on Twitter.

But then something strange began happening to a lot of the people who posted a picture of the flag and made critical comments. They began getting suspended by Twitter. The reasoning? That they violated Twitter’s rules “against posting or sharing privately produced/distributed intimate media of someone without their express consent.”

BREAKING: Twitter has locked @ALX for 12 hours for posting a comment about the Ukrainian flag in Congress

Free @ALX! pic.twitter.com/DGX22NhlL4

— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) December 22, 2022

My friend got suspended for 12 hrs for tweeting “our country is dying” with a pic of Kamala and Pelosi holding the Ukraine flag… and all I gotta say is…

our country is dying pic.twitter.com/RzbjNLXoZP

— heidi briones (@HeidiBriones) December 22, 2022

Well after 3 1/2 hours of 12 hour sentence in Twitter Jail, it appears my appeal was successful and I’m back. Somehow the photo of Kamala, Pelosi holding the flag on the house floor photo was targeted. Thank to @JackPosobiec for raising it and @elonmusk for correcting it. pic.twitter.com/ZmWmIKkLEE

— Rob O'Donnell (@odonnell_r) December 22, 2022

This was the original tweet that is now back as well. pic.twitter.com/ldysUrZPMb

— Rob O’Donnell (@odonnell_r) December 22, 2022

.@elonmusk, why was @jason_meister suspended for tweeting the Ukrainian flag? pic.twitter.com/hv0riSjt4U

— HARLAN Z. HILL 🇺🇸 (@Harlan) December 22, 2022

There was nothing private about the picture, it was published everywhere, a public event on the House floor. That rule would normally apply to something like revenge porn. Pelosi and Harris are a lot of things and they may qualify as disaster areas, but I don’t think they meet the criteria of revenge porn.

People appealed to Elon Musk who said that the suspensions were wrong and should never have happened.

Looking into it. That tweet doesn’t violate ToS.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 22, 2022

Ultimately after a few hours, it appears that they have been lifted, with Musk’s help. He may just be the most responsive CEO for such a major entity ever.

But, of course, this raises the question of why there was a targeted effort to go after anyone who criticized the flag picture in even the mildest way and suggests there are still people or an algorithm affecting things to suppress speech on Twitter. Musk may have to do a bit more house cleaning as he continues in his effort to clean up the platform because this was political targeting for the “offense” of criticizing the Democrats/Zelensky. It shows how deep the rot has gone on the platform.