The GOP and Republican groups won’t advertise on Twitter over bias claims
The GOP is reportedly taking its advertising money out of Twitter’s pocket.
The Republican Party, the Trump campaign, and other GOP organizations said Thursday that they are freezing their spending on Twitter to protest the platform’s treatment of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
While the GOP and its leader Donald Trump have long complained about perceived bias in social media, especially when Alex Jones was deplatformed, the rhetoric has ratcheted up recently due to the temporary suspension of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s campaign Twitter account. The account was suspended for tweeting a video that threatened physical violence. As with other tweets that violate its terms of service, Twitter temporarily locked McConnell’s campaign account on Wednesday. It was back up and running on Thursday minus the offending tweet.
This is how Twitter has long operated, but Republicans don’t see it that way. The video reportedly showed protestors outside of McConnell’s home threatening violence against him after his supporters were photographed groping a cardboard cutout of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The Courier-Journal reported that, in the video, one protester said McConnell should have broken his neck instead of fracturing his shoulder; another spoke of violence when responding to a reference about a hypothetical McConnell voodoo doll.
McConnell is surely also frustrated by the fact that #MassacreMitch trended on Twitter after he refused to do anything in the wake of two (more) mass shootings. According to the AP, in an interview on Louisville radio station WHAS, McConnell said the decision to ban his campaign account was indicative of the “left-wing tilt of these big companies.”
Now, Republicans are organizing a boycott of Twitter. This does not mean they will leave the social media site, though, but just pull advertising money. Yes, that means you won’t see any promoted tweets or other Republican targeted campaigns on the site. According to MarketWatch, Trump’s reelection campaign was planning to spend between $300,000 and $500,000 on Twitter ads in August alone, and now those ads will go unseen. In the words of the president: SAD!
Until Twitter addresses its bias, we’re halting future ad spending on the platform.
This bias from Silicon Valley needs to end. pic.twitter.com/JKBOVygO4W
— Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) August 9, 2019
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