“Victory!!! Thank you to EVERYONE for helping #FreeMitch,” the Twitter account of the Kentucky Republican’s re-election campaign, @Team_Mitch, said Friday. “Help us keep winning,” they added while including a campaign donation link.
The celebration came after Twitter unlocked the account, which was on temporary suspension for violating the platform’s abusive behavior policy for sharing a video of protesters outside McConnell’s home earlier this week who were calling for physical violence to occur against the Senate’s top Republican for not yet acting on gun control in the wake of two mass shootings.
The suspension lift occurred the morning after the Trump campaign and several top Republican campaign arms—the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee and the Republican National Committee—vowed to halt all advertising money being spent on Twitter, accusing the company of “anti-conservative bias.”
In a series of tweets, Twitter explained that, upon further review, the video in which McConnell’s account shared would still be able to be viewed but added that a warning about sensitive content would be included.
“After multiple appeals from affected users and Leader McConnell’s team confirming their intent to highlight the threats for public discussion, we have reviewed this case more closely,” Twitter said. “Going forward, the video will be visible on the service with a sensitive media interstitial and only in cases where the Tweet content does not otherwise violate the Twitter Rules.”
The tweet that caused @Team_Mitch’s suspension included a video of protesters outside McConnell’s Kentucky home earlier this week, in which people can be heard saying “just stab the motherf—er in the heart” and reportedly had “Massacre Mitch” signs.
“Last night, an angry left-wing mob of Amy McGrath supporters stormed Senator McConnell’s Louisville home screaming obscenities and hoping someone would ‘just stab the motherf–ker in the heart,’” @Team_Mitch tweeted Tuesday.
McGrath’s campaign, who is McConnell’s Democratic opponent, said it did not have any role in the protests nor did it condone them.
Conservatives and Republicans have long claimed Twitter deploys “anti-conservative bias” by making tweets issued by more conservative accounts less visible—a practice known as “shadow banning”—and that right-leaning accounts are more likely to be punished for allegedly violating terms and conditions. As an example, conservatives pointed to Twitter temporarily allowing “#MassacreMitch” to trend nationwide after the protests outside McConnell’s home occurred.
A Twitter spokesperson denied to Newsweek on Thursday that political ideology plays a role, saying that content containing violent threats and the “glorification of violence” are prohibited, regardless of the context and who shares it.
Twitter also previously said that the @Team_Mitch account would need to delete the tweet in question in order for the suspension to be lifted. However, that stipulation appears to no longer apply.
