Readers of the Bee,

We received a notice from Twitter last night informing us that we've been locked out of our account for engaging in "hateful conduct." Our crime? We jokingly selected Rachel Levine - a prominent transgender government official - as our pick for "Man of the Year." (This was our satirical response to Levine's being named one of the top women of the year by USA Today. Yes, that actually happened.)

We've been told our account will be restored in 12 hours, but the countdown won't begin until we delete the tweet that violates Twitter Rules.

Here's Twitter's statement to the media regarding our account's suspension: "The account you referenced has been temporarily locked for violating our hateful conduct policy. The account owner is required to delete the violative Tweet before regaining access to their account."

Twitter could, of course, delete the tweet themselves. But they won't. It's not enough for them to just wipe it out. They want us to bend the knee and admit that we engaged in hateful conduct.

I can promise you that's not happening. Truth is not hate speech. If the cost of telling the truth is the loss of our Twitter account, then so be it. We won't compromise the truth just to keep our account.

The media has picked up the story now. Even left-wing sites are covering it. I'll be on Tucker Carlson later tonight to talk about it. But a couple of days of media attention doesn't make up for what could potentially be the permanent loss of our Twitter account and the traffic it generates. To put it very bluntly, we need your support. Here's a couple of things you can do:

First, commit to never censoring yourself. Insist that 2 and 2 make 4 even if Twitter tries to compel you to say otherwise. Make them ban tens of millions of us if they want to remove objective truth from their platform.

Second, become a premium subscriber. You'll get some great perks, but, more importantly, you'll provide us with the critical financial support we need to keep going in the face of ongoing censorship.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: The greatest accomplishment on Twitter isn't going viral, or building a huge following, or getting verified - it's getting banned for saying something true. We're proud to stand up for the truth, and we're deeply appreciative of each and every one of you who commits to standing with us.

Thank for your loyal readership and support of The Babylon Bee.

Seth Dillon
CEO