After enraged liberals swarmed the home of Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Twitter locked the Republican’s campaign account — simply for highlighting the profane, violent threats to which he was subjected.
The Twitter account was frozen Wednesday after the Republican leader posted video of protesters outside his home issuing death threats. The group gathered outside McConnell’s Louisville home following a pair of mass shootings that left more than 30 people dead in Texas and Ohio.
Twitter has, notably, not taken similar action against Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) after he doxxed Trump donors from his own district in the aftermath of the tragedies, potentially exposing those individuals to a range of detrimental consequences.
Account locked
Conservatives have long complained of a double standard employed by social media platforms, in which they are silenced for political speech while progressives are not penalized for making violent threats. In addition to not punishing leftists, Twitter is now apparently working to blame their targets.
“This morning, Twitter locked our account for posting the video of real-world, violent threats made against Mitch McConnell,” campaign manager Kevin Golden said in a statement. “This is the problem with the speech police in America today.”
The hashtag #MassacreMitch began trending on Twitter this week following the mass shootings. Democrats have called on McConnell to cancel the August recess to pass gun control legislation. McConnell, who fractured his shoulder after tripping on his patio, was recovering at home when a group of 20 to 30 protesters surrounded his house Monday night. Louisville Black Lives Matter leader Chanelle Helm expressed a desire for McConnell to break his neck and to “just stab the m—– f—– in the heart,” referring to a voodoo doll of McConnell.
McConnell’s campaign tweeted video of the protesters Tuesday and called the threats a “physical call to violence.” Twitter then locked his account Wednesday and told his campaign that that they will not restore the account until he deletes the video. The platform said the tweet “violated our violent threats policy, specifically threats involving physical safety.”
Golden added, “The Lexington-Herald can attack Mitch with cartoon tombstones of his opponents. But we can’t mock it. Twitter will allow the words ‘Massacre Mitch’ to trend nationally on their platform. But locks our account for posting actual threats against us. We appealed and Twitter stood by their decision, saying our account will remain locked until we delete the video.”
Castro skates
McConnell’s content apparently violated Twitter rules because it contained a threat, even though McConnell was the one being threatened. If that is Twitter’s standard, then it’s hard to explain why Joaquin Castro still has an account.
In the wake of the shootings, one of which was perpetrated by an anti-immigrant shooter, Castro posted the names and employers of constituents in his own district who donated to Trump’s campaign. Castro has denied trying to threaten them, but it’s hard to imagine what else he had in mind.
McConnell’s campaign said it has contacted the authorities about the death threats. Helm said she had no regrets.
“McConnell doesn’t care about people who actually do break their necks, who need insulin, who need any type of medication, because they want to stop and prevent health care for all,” Helm said. “And that is something that every American out here wants. There’s only a few Americans who don’t want that, and those people are politicians and their cronies.”
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