Twitter Unlocks McConnell Campaign Account after GOP Groups Pull Ads
Twitter unlocked the account of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s Senate campaign Friday after a two-day suspension for posting footage of protesters shouting obscenities and making violent threats outside of his home, which the company said violated its “violent threats policy.”
“After multiple appeals from affected users and Leader McConnell’s team confirming their intent to highlight the threats for public discussion, we have reviewed this case more closely,” Twitter said in a statement. “Going forward, the video will be visible on the service with a sensitive media interstitial and only in cases where the Tweet content does not otherwise violate the Twitter Rules.”
“Victory!!!” tweeted McConnell’s campaign account. “Thank you to EVERYONE for helping #FreeMitch.”
Twitter’s reversal comes after several national Republican groups threatened to cancel planned ad-buys on the social-media platform to protest the locking of McConnell’s account.
The Senate GOP’s campaign arm, the National Republican Senate Committee, terminated its spending on Twitter advertisements on Thursday, calling the social-media platform’s move “hostile” and “outrageous.” The Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee, and Senator Marsha Blackburn’s campaign followed suit, saying they would be pulling their ad dollars from the platform until McConnell’s account was unlocked.
Protesters can be heard saying in the video that McConnell “should have broken his little, raggedy, wrinkled-a*s neck,” in a recent fall that resulted in a broken shoulder from which he is currently recovering. A woman can also be heard talking about stabbing McConnell in the heart.
“This is a problem with the speech police in America today,” McConnell’s campaign manager, Kevin Golden, said in a statement before the account was unlocked. “Twitter will allow the words of ‘Massacre Mitch’ to trend nationally on their platform but locks our account for posting actual threats against us.”
