Mitch McConnell Campaign’s Twitter Account Suspended Following Profanity-Laced Video
Twitter has suspended the account of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s campaign, following the posting of a profanity-laced video of a protest outside of his Kentucky home, Yahoo News reports. The ban applies only to the McConnell election campaign, and not to the account belonging to McConnell himself.
On Monday, protesters gathered outside of McConnell’s home. Some of the activists present used language that could be considered offensive. For example, one activist, Black Lives Matter Louisville leader Chanelle Helm, referring to McConnell’s injured shoulder, said that it would be better if McConnell had “broken his little raggedy, wrinkled-[expletive] neck.” Helm also replies to a reference of a hypothetical voodoo doll of McConnell.
“Just stab the motherf**ker in the heart,” she said.
Video of that protest, including those profanities, was posted by the account @Team_Mitch, which is the verified Twitter account of McConnell’s campaign. However, the account was later suspended and placed into “Twitter jail,” as users call it.
McConnell campaign manager Kevin Golden confirmed that the account was temporarily suspended.
“This morning, Twitter locked our account for posting the video of real-world, violent threats made against Mitch McConnell,” he said.
Golden then stated that the suspension is indicative of a “problem with free speech in America,” and noted that Twitter has allowed the hashtag #MassacreMitch to propagate on the platform but suspended the McConnell campaign account for posting a video that Golden claims shows “actual threats against us.”
“We appealed and Twitter stood by their decision, saying our account will remain locked until we delete the video,” he said.
JUST IN: @Team_Mitch is in @Twitter jail. https://t.co/AhYcHX703k #KYSen #FreeMitch pic.twitter.com/2sFu9pYgjm
— Philmonger (@phillipmbailey) August 7, 2019
As of this writing, the @Team_Mitch account is visible to the general public. The most recent tweet from the account, dated August 6, appears to reference the incidents at McConnell’s home.
“These threats go far beyond a political cartoon or a broken shoulder, they are serious calls to physical violence and we’ve alerted law enforcement,” it reads.
Despite the most recent tweet on the account dating from two days ago, One America News reports that the campaign’s account has been restored.
https://twitter.com/OANN/status/1159503632938631168
Some Republicans, among them Donald Trump, have complained that Twitter has been censoring right-wing politicians and media personalities. Specifically, as reported by The Inquisitr, Trump accuses Twitter of “shadow banning” conservatives. “Shadow banning,” according to The New York Times, is the act of disabling a user’s privileges on a message board, social media outlet, or other internet platform, without actually telling that person they’ve been banned.
Twitter denies that it shadow-bans users.
