Sen Steve Daines of Montana had his Twitter account suspended for several hours on Tuesday for violating the company’s sensitive media policy.
It is believed that the affronting photograph was Mr Daines’ profile picture, which shows him and his wife in hunting gear posing with a dead animal. Mr Daines’ campaign account, which shows him shooting a gun, was not suspended.
“We don’t allow images of dead animals or blood in profile photos because we are unable to label them as NSFW and keep them from being seen by users who specifically don’t want to see graphic images,” Twitter’s Vice President for Trust and Safety Ella Irwin wrote to Mr Daines’ Senate office, in a message explaining the suspension that was reported by CNN.
The profile picture appears to show flecks of blood on the animal’s leg that become more apparent upon zooming in on the photograph. Mr Daines appears to be holding the animal’s head up.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee did not take kindly to the suspension or the explanation.
“This is insane,” Philip Letsou, a committee spokesperson, said in a statement also reported by CNN. “Twitter should immediately reverse this suspension.”
Twitter quickly did reverse the suspension, with CEO Elon Musk reportedly calling Mr Daines personally and reinstating his account with the profile picture unchanged. Mr Musk then said in a response to a Austin-based Republican political operative’s tweet that the company is reviewing its sensitive media policy.
“Policy against showing blood in profile pic is being amended to ‘clearly showing blood without clicking on the profile pic’,” Mr Musk tweeted. “The intent is to avoid people being forced to see gruesome profile pics.”
Mr Daines had his account reinstated in plenty of time to tweet through Tuesday night’s State of the Union address, attacking President Joe Biden’s speech and praising the Republican response given by Gov Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas following its conclusion.
“.@JoeBiden was talking at Democrats and yelling about Republicans,” Mr Daines tweeted when the night’s speeches were finished. “@SarahHuckabee was speaking to Americans tonight.”
Mr Daines’ home state of Montana, long known as a bastion of ticket-splitting voters and relatively moderate politics, has taken a right turn in recent years and is facing one of its region’s most serious housing crisis in cities like Bozeman. Mr Daines’ commentary on the State of the Union focused on immigration at the southern border, China, and inflation.
