Twitter suspends account of US lawmaker — RT World News
Senator Steve Daines apparently breached the social media platform by posting a hunting photo
US Senator Steve Daines has been censored by Twitter for posting a profile picture showing himself and his wife posing proudly with a dead antelope while on a hunting trip.
The Montana Republican’s account was reinstated on Tuesday, hours after Twitter suspended him for allegedly violating its policy against posting graphic images or adult content. Daines said the offending image was his hunting photo. Twitter offered no explanation for restoring the account, which still featured the same profile picture.
“I’m free,” Daines proclaimed in a Twitter post celebrating his reinstatement. “Thank you Elon Musk.” He then released a statement thanking Musk for addressing the issue after hearing about it, saying he was glad the Twitter owner “recognizes that free speech is a foundation of our country.”
Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas), former President Donald Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., and other Republicans had expressed outrage over the suspension. Social media suspensions of politicians, including President Trump himself, were previously common, but Musk pledged to make Twitter a bastion of free speech when he agreed to buy the company. company for $44 billion last year. The billionaire entrepreneur completed the purchase in October and quickly drew criticism for censoring certain content, such as posts revealing a person’s live location.
At the same time, Musk has come under pressure from regulators to censor content they deem objectionable. After Musk pledged in November to be more “transparent and impartial” than Twitter had been in the past, EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton threatened to ban the platform. Breton made several requests, including enhanced moderation of content to “fight against disinformation”.
During Daines’ suspension, his posts as far back as last Friday were marked with a statement that they were temporarily unavailable due to a violation of policy. The statement related to Twitter’s policy on sensitive media.
At the time of the ruling, Daines had posted tweets criticizing President Joe Biden’s handling of an alleged Chinese spy balloon that flew across the country last week. “It was really more of a trial balloon by the Chinese,” Daines said Monday in an interview with Fox News. “They looked at how decisive this president is. The president was undecided. He was projecting weakness right now. This was exactly what the Chinese wanted to see happen.
RT
