Twitter blocks ‘Uncle Tim’ slur against black Republican senator from trending, but allows users to keep posting it

Twitter announced that it would block a racial slur being used against Republican South Carolina Senator Tim Scott from trending, after users pointed out it was against the social network’s rules against racist tropes and slurs.

Scott delivered the Republican response to President Joe Biden’s address to congress on Wednesday. During the speech, he recalled having been “called Uncle Tom and the n-word by progressives and liberals” – ironically, prompting Biden supporters to take to Twitter and use a variation of the slur against the senator.

The amount of abuse hurled at Scott led to “Uncle Tim” becoming one of Twitter’s most prominent trending topics on Wednesday night. The phrase is a play on ‘Uncle Tom’ – a slur which is used to insinuate that a black person has betrayed their race for white people.

Many users, however, soon protested Twitter for allowing the phrase to trend, pointing to the platform’s ‘Hateful conduct policy’ which bans “slurs, epithets, racist and sexist tropes, or other content that degrades someone.” On Thursday, the company responded by taking the trend down.

A Twitter spokesperson told various outlets that it could “confirm that we are blocking the phrase” from appearing as a trend in an effort to “promote healthy conversations on Twitter,” though the social network continued to allow its users – including verified media figures – to use the slur in their own tweets.

Tim Scott continued to be one of Twitter’s top trending topics following the intervention, but only his name appeared, without any reference to the ‘Uncle Tom/Tim’ slur.

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