Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) ended up locked out of his account with Twitter after he swapped out his profile picture with an image of a recent hunting trip he went on with his wife.
Apparently, the post stood in violation of rules on Twitter against “graphic violence or adult content in profile images,” as explained by a notice issued from the social media titan which ended up being made public by Daines spokeswoman Rachel Dumke. “We consider graphic violence to be any form of gory media related to death, serious injury, violence, or surgical procedures,” the notice stated.
.@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
Daines was told that he will be made to delete the profile photo or his account will not be unlocked.
“This is insane. Twitter should immediately reverse this suspension,” explained Philip Letsou, the National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesman, in a recent release.
Additional legislators went off in statements targeting the social media titan over this decision. “If you don’t like hunting, fine, don’t go. But don’t censor others who disagree. And I’m pretty sure this is a formal job responsibility for a senator from Montana!” stated Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). “Stop censoring our Montana way of life! Great shot, Cindy!” tacked on Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT).
Last year, Elon Musk bought Twitter for roughly $44 billion in a move he claimed was to secure and restore free speech across the platform. The richest man in the world first explained to advertisers that he acquired the company in order to “have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence.” He promised that the social media platform would not end up becoming a “free-for-all hellscape” where its users could violate the law with no repercussions.
Though a large number of conservative accounts have been allowed to get back onto the platform in the wake of Musk buying out the platform, which includes accounts such as Christian satire site The Babylon Bee, a number of types of censorship actions have seemingly been allowed to stay.
Project Veritas, a journalism nonprofit, ended up being “wrongfully locked out” of their Twitter account for close to two hours after releasing a post showing a sting video which highlighted one official for Pfizer openly admitting that the company was not sure at all why their vaccines are oddly affecting women’s menstrual cycles. The ban was seemingly sparked by the group highlighting shared footage from one of their reporters who confronted YouTube Vice President of Global Trust and Safety Matt Halprin about why the company chose to go out of its way to censor the sting.
