Winter Olympics: US skier says Twitter account suspended after he praised Beijing Games; they get ‘pretty bad media’
- Three-time Olympian Aaron Blunck says China has ‘done a stellar job’, while criticising biased coverage of the Games
- Snowboarder Tessa Maud says she has tears in her eyes when she recalls how warmly she was welcomed on arrival in Beijing
Three-time Olympian Aaron Blunck said he was suspended from Twitter after he and his US ski teammates praised China for its “stellar” operations at the Olympic Village.
“They have honestly done a stellar job with the whole Covid protocol,” the 25-year-old told reporters in the press room, before criticising biased coverage of the Games.
“I didn’t really know what to expect, being stateside you’ve kind of heard some pretty bad media, and that is completely false – it’s actually been phenomenal.”
The 25-year-old said his Twitter account was then suspended, as he resorted to Instagram to protest the social platform’s unexplained decision, reposting a fan’s comment that read: “Aaron Blunck [is] out here telling the truth and getting punished by his own government.”
But a search of the internet archive indicates the account was suspended in September last year, and in response to queries about the skier’s account, the social media platform said it was “suspended in error and has since been recovered”.
Blunck further shared a commentator’s tweet accusing the US government of being behind his account being shut down: “Twitter has executed the order of the Western ruling cabals … Punishment comes pretty fast.” Blunck tagged Twitter and asked: “what’d I do?”