President Trump’s reelection campaign expressed outrage after a “potentially sensitive content” warning appeared for some Twitter users trying to view his Super Bowl advertisement on Sunday.
The ad highlighted the administration’s work on criminal justice reform, and it also prominently featured Alice Marie Johnson, whom Trump had granted clemency to in June 2018. Johnson had been convicted and sentenced to life without parole for her role in facilitating communications in a cocaine trafficking operation in 1996.
With a price tag of over $5 million, the ad aired during the first quarter of Super Bowl LIV between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers. The president tweeted out the clip during the game as well. But the social media platform placed a “potentially sensitive content” warning on the video when it was retweeted by Dave Briggs, who has a verified Twitter account with more than 22,000 followers, who upon viewing his retweet were forced to request access to view it instead of the ad instantly appearing on their timeline.
“Yet again, Twitter is silencing President Trump and his campaign on their platform for putting out truthful and compelling content. The ad about Alice Johnson’s incredible story highlighted the President’s commitment to criminal justice reform and second chances for people,” Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh told the Washington Examiner on Monday.
While Trump campaign deputy director of communications Matt Wolking accused “angry Democrats” who “reported it en masse,” a Twitter spokeswoman told the Washington Examiner that the warning occurred as a result of Briggs’s personal account settings.
The spokeswoman also pointed to the platform’s media settings, which explains that users have the ability to set their own accounts so others may receive messages or notifications that a user’s profile may include potentially sensitive content, while also asking them to confirm they still want to see it.
Last month, Twitter unintentionally placed similar warnings on a tweet from the president’s campaign, as well as GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, both of whom had tweeted about the anti-abortion movement.
