The National Republican Senatorial Committee is suspending campaign advertising with Twitter after the social media giant locked the account of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s campaign.
Twitter put McConnell’s campaign account in virtual jail on Wednesday for posting video of an activist threatening the Kentucky Republican outside of the lawmakers house. Twitter claimed the video violated its “violent threats policy.”
“Twitter’s hostile actions toward Leader McConnell’s campaign are outrageous, and we will not tolerate it,” NRSC spokesman Jesse Hunt said, according to Politico. “The NRSC will suspend all spending with Twitter until further notice. We will not spend our resources on a platform that silences conservatives.”
McConnell’s campaign struck out at Twitter in a statement on Wednesday, accusing the company of holding arbitrary standards that serve to silence conservatives.
“This morning, Twitter locked our account for posting the video of real-world, violent threats made against Mitch McConnell. This is a problem with the speech police in America today,” McConnell campaign manager Kevin Golden told the Louisville Courier-Journal. “The Lexington Herald-Leader can attack Mitch with cartoon tombstones of his opponents. But we can’t mock it.”
“Twitter will allow the words of ‘Massacre Mitch’ to trend nationally on their platform, but locks our account for posting actual threats against us,” Golden added. “We appealed and Twitter stood by their decision, saying our account will remain locked until we delete the video.”
Black Lives Matter Louisville leader Chanelle Helm was captured on video Monday saying, “just stab the motherf—er in the heart,” referring to a McConnell voodoo doll. Video of the comment went viral before Twitter began purging the video from its site.
[Read more: CNN contributor Wajahat Ali deletes tweet supporting ‘MassacreMoscowMitch’ hashtag]
