The X account of Vancouver’s Penthouse strip club has been suspended, and not for what you’d think.
The social media platform formerly known as Twitter took action after a photo of the club’s latest marquee reading, “Forever neighbours, never neighbors” went viral.
The wording references president-elect Donald Trump’s recent trolling of Canada by calling it America’s 51st state, and uses the juxtaposition of the Canadian spelling of “neighbour” against the U.S. “neighbor” for political satire.
Obviously cheeky, the marquee has hit a nerve with some.
Only a day after a photo of The Penthouse’s sign was posted to X, the free speech social media platform shut down the club’s account saying “it violates the X Hateful Profile Policy.”
“When I first saw the words “hate speech” my heart dropped,” said Penthouse social media manager Benjamin Jackson.”Still right now, I find myself a little speechless because it’s shocking, just obviously knowing that it’s clearly not hate speech.”
Jackson still isn’t certain how the sign came to be deemed hateful.
“I think it’s probably flagged by somebody that is more of a Trump or Elon Musk supporter, and … if it gets enough complaints, by default it will get taken down,” he said.
CBC News has reached out to X to confirm its reasoning for the suspension.
The Penthouse marquee is already famous in Vancouver thanks to Jackson’s talent of combining the business of exotic dancing with current affairs headlines.
“Better polls than CNN projections” was another riff on U.S politics he posted on the marquee not long ago. During the pandemic closure it announced, “Clothed until further notice.”
While the marquee regularly draws laughs locally, it’s now growing an international audience.
When CBC News spoke to Penthouse owner Danny Filippone, he was in the middle of ordering 100 T-shirts with “Forever neighbours, never neighbors” on the front, at the request of a Seattle businessman.
“This particular marquee, the whirlwind and the amount of attention — literally the phone has been ringing every five minutes,” said Filippone, whose family has owned the club since the 1930s.
“From media to friends, from customers to complete strangers emailing The Penthouse basically saying, ‘This is crazy, what’s going on?'”
Jackson, who does double duty as a bartender, said the X controversy is inevitably good for business.
“It’s amazing. A lot of people at first were like, ‘Oh, that sucks that your X account got taken down.’ And last night I was with some friends and I said, ‘You know what, it was the best thing that could have happened.’
“I think [the marquee] would have had the recognition in the city. But the fact is now… it’s a bigger story. And to me, I’m all for it. They can keep the account at this point.”
