Republicans vow to not buy Twitter ads after McConnell blocked

Washington, Aug 9 (AFP/APP):President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign and leading Republicans on Thursday vowed to not buy Twitter ads after the social media platform froze Senator Mitch McConnell’s re-election account for breaking site rules.

Twitter locked the “Team Mitch” account after it posted a video of protesters outside the Senate majority leader’s home in Kentucky shouting that he should die.

The video violated Twitter’s violent threats policy, “specifically threats involving physical safety,” the social media platform said.

The demonstration came after a picture over the weekend went viral on social media of young McConnell supporters in “Team Mitch” t-shirts groping and choking a life-size cardboard cutout of New York Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

The conservative backlash over McConnell’s frozen account was swift.

“Twitter’s hostile actions toward Leader McConnell’s campaign are outrageous, and we will not tolerate it,” National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesman Jesse Hunt said in a statement.
He said his group “will suspend all spending with Twitter until further notice. We will not spend our resources on a platform that silences conservatives.”

The Republican Party “and @TeamTrump stand with the @Team_Mitch and the @NRSC,” tweeted Republican National Committee chief of staff Richard Walters.