Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) was briefly locked out of his Twitter account after posting a photo of him and his wife on a hunting trip.
Daines was locked out of his account on Monday night after he changed his profile picture to a photo of him and his wife posing next to an animal lying on the ground. The photo violated Twitter’s rules against “graphic violence or adult content in profile images,” according to a photo posted on social media by Rachel Dumke, a spokeswoman for Daines.
“Because going hunting with your wife is apparently against rules now,” Dumke wrote. “What a joke.”
‘HE PROJECTED WEAKNESS’: STEVE DAINES PANS BIDEN’S ‘INDECISIVE’ LEADERSHIP OVER CHINESE SPY BALLOON
.@SteveDaines’ twitter account was locked last night for displaying “graphic violence” in his profile picture.
Because going hunting with your wife is apparently against @Twitter rules now.
What a joke. pic.twitter.com/gy4XIu3cv0
— Rachel Dumke (@RachelDumke9) February 7, 2023
Twitter told Daines his account would remain locked until the photo was removed, Dumke told the Washington Examiner.
Daines believes “it is preposterous that a picture of him and his wife hunting — an activity that is engrained in the Montana way of life — would be against Twitter rules,” Dumke added.
As of Tuesday, 1:39 p.m. EST, Daines was allowed back into his Twitter account without having to delete the hunting photo.
I’m free! Thanks, @elonmusk. https://t.co/reDuCwf4Q2
— Steve Daines (@SteveDaines) February 7, 2023
“I am grateful Elon Musk reached out to me to resolve this issue and am glad that he recognizes that free speech is a bedrock of our country, and acted quickly to reinstate my Twitter account after being made aware of its suspension,” a statement from Daines read. “The initial ban over the profile photo of my wife and me after a successful Montana antelope hunt was disappointing given the fact that it is no different than photos Montanans share on social media every day. It’s our Montana way of life and we are proud of it. I am glad Elon Musk recognizes this.”
Billionaire Elon Musk, who purchased Twitter in October 2022, wrote Tuesday on social media that Twitter would be “broadly accepting of different values” going forward and would not try “to impose its own specific values on the world.”
Going forward, Twitter will be broadly accepting of different values, rather than trying to impose its own specific values on the world
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 7, 2023
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) spoke out against the social media platform’s decision to lock Daines out of his account, stating that Twitter should not “censor others” who enjoy hunting. Cruz joked on Tuesday that Daines told him that “he was aiming for the balloon, but hit an antelope instead,” referring to the Chinese spy balloon that had been spotted in the United States last week.
2/2 @SteveDaines told me he was aiming for the balloon, but hit an antelope instead. ?
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) February 7, 2023
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Daines’s lockout from his Twitter account came only two days before three former Twitter employees are scheduled to appear before the House Oversight Committee for testimony on Feb. 8, all of whom will testify about Twitter’s decision to censor a story on Hunter Biden’s laptop weeks before the 2020 presidential election. The committee will be looking for answers about classified documents that were found inside President Joe Biden‘s home located in Wilmington, Delaware.
The three witnesses who once worked at Twitter include Vijaya Gadde, former chief legal officer of Twitter, James Baker, the former deputy general counsel of Twitter, and Yoel Roth, Twitter’s former global head of trust and safety, according to a press release from Rep. James Comer (R-KY), the chairman of the committee.
