A leading GOP congressman has finally been released from social media prison.
The Twitter censors decided, on Friday, to reinstate Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) campaign account, “Team Mitch,” after it was frozen for a so-called violation of site policy.
McConnell 1 – Twitter 0
After days of silence, “Team Mitch” was back on Twitter yesterday afternoon celebrating its defeat of the social media giant.
“Victory!!!” the triumphant tweet read. “Thank you to EVERYONE for helping #FreeMitch.”
Victory!!!
Thank you to EVERYONE for helping #FreeMitch.
Help us keep winning: https://t.co/u56exRnfKv pic.twitter.com/7Y28QdkrKv
— Team Mitch (@Team_Mitch) August 9, 2019
Two days earlier, on Wednesday, the Senate Majority Leader’s account had been frozen for posting a video of leftist protestors besieging McConnell’s home and making profanity-laced threats against him. One protesting woman said, “Just stab the motherf***** in the heart,” apparently referring to a voodoo doll.
See the video below (warning: contains profanity):
Last night, an angry left-wing mob of Amy McGrath supporters stormed Senator McConnell’s Louisville home screaming obscenities and hoping someone would ‘just stab the motherfucker in the heart.’ pic.twitter.com/Ygo1mbQSk5
— Team Mitch (@Team_Mitch) August 6, 2019
“The users were temporarily locked out of their accounts for a Tweet that violated our violent threats policy, specifically threats involving physical safety,” a Twitter spokesman explained. The referred-to policy prevents users from sharing any content in which threats are made against individuals or groups.
The backlash
Twitter’s decision drew heavy criticism, starting with McConnell himself, who accused the platform of bias and of blaming the victim, while simultaneously allowing the provocative hashtag “#MassacreMitch” to trend.
But things really picked up on Thursday when top Republican organizations, including the Republican National Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, threatened to stop spending money on Twitter until McConnell was reinstated.
On Friday, Twitter finally reversed its decision and restored access to the account, while allowing the video to remain.
“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 Comms explained. “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.”
Social media censorship
The episode highlighted the absurd double-standard that can be seen across social media platforms, as Democrats post messages about supposed threats made against themselves all the time. McConnell was simply following suit, albeit with some hard evidence.
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