Twitter blocked the promotion of a Democratic campaign video on its platform because it expressed support for abortion rights, according to email conversations obtained by HuffPost.
The video, created by North Carolina State Sen. Rachel Hunt (D) for her campaign for lieutenant governor, focuses on abortion rights in North Carolina and the fall of Roe v. Wade. Hunt says in the video that she is running for lieutenant governor to fight the anti-choice Republicans they recently passed. a 12-week abortion ban in the state.
“When Roe v. Wade arrived in rural America, the women woke up to a different world. A world with a little more time. Little girls were little more girls. Young women had the freedom to stay or go. The word ‘freedom’ was finally being used to talk about our lives,” Hunt says in the campaign video. “Important decisions didn’t get any easier, but they were yours. A move to the city for college, a career, for life—those dreams didn’t have to end with an unplanned pregnancy.”
“I am running for lieutenant governor because the Republican plan is not a 12-week abortion ban for this year, it is a total abortion ban for next year,” she continues. “We are talking about 50 years of precedents. Not just the legal precedent, but how three generations of women have lived their lives.”
The video is still available on Twitter, but the Hunt campaign is currently unable to advertise or promote the video on the platform.
It’s common for companies and political candidates to pay Twitter to advertise content, whether it’s campaign videos or promotional material for certain products. Hunt’s campaign told HuffPost that they had set up a budget with Twitter to advertise certain videos, but later noted that the money had not been spent and the ad had not been pushed by the platform.
When Hunt’s campaign took to Twitter to inquire about the heist, an employee said promotion of the video was blocked due to “the mention of abortion advocacy.”
“Oh yeah, the mention of abortion advocacy is the problem here,” a Twitter employee told Hunt’s campaign Wednesday in an email reviewed by HuffPost. The employee said the company may have “some good news to share on that front” in the coming week, apparently suggesting it may change its standards and practices around content that discusses abortion rights.
“For now, though, you still won’t be able to send messages on that topic,” the employee added.
HuffPost reached out to Twitter for comment and received an automated response with a poop emoji, as is now standard.
Hunt said she is deeply concerned that Twitter believes content related to abortion rights should be banned.
“This campaign is about representing the issues that matter most to North Carolinians, including ensuring that all women have the right to make decisions about their own bodies,” she told HuffPost.
“I am deeply concerned that Twitter considers the issue of protecting our fundamental freedoms as prohibited content,” Hunt continued. “Regardless, I will continue to focus on sharing my message with voters in every community in every part of the state.”
Since business mogul Elon Musk bought Twitter last year, the social media platform has noticeably shifted to the right. When Musk took office, he immediately invited a number of right-wing extremists who had been ousted from Twitter to the platform, including former President Donald Trump. Musk has cut the company from 7,500 employees to about 2,000 now, laid off people in critical roles and reduced the ability of employees to moderate hate speech and misinformation.
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