Twitter pulls Blackburn Senate ad deemed ‘inflammatory’

Twitter is barring a top Republican Senate candidate from advertising her campaign launch video on the service because a line about her efforts to investigate Planned Parenthood was deemed “inflammatory.”

GOP Rep. Marsha Blackburn, who is running to replace retiring Sen. Bob Corker, launched her campaign last week with a video proclaiming herself “a hard core, card-carrying Tennessee conservative.” In her announcement video, she boasts: “I fought Planned Parenthood and we stopped the sale of baby body parts. Thank God.”


Twitter decided the line violated its ad policies, according to an email obtained by POLITICO. The video is still on Twitter, but the campaign is barred from paying to promote it.

"The account is not suspended, nor are the organic Tweets the account has sent containing the same video from the promoted Tweets," a Twitter spokesperson wrote in an email.

The line refers to her work leading a House select committee investigating Planned Parenthood following a 2015 controversy in which videos shot by undercover conservative journalists appeared to show the group profiting from the sale of fetal body tissue. Democrats have argued the panel’s inquiry was a waste of taxpayer funds, intended to concoct a reason to shut down the group.

Planned Parenthood consistently denied wrongdoing and never faced criminal charges.

“It appears that the line in this video specific to 'stopped the sale of baby body parts' has been deemed an inflammatory statement that is likely to evoke a strong negative reaction,” a Twitter employee wrote to two employees of Targeted Victory, a digital GOP consulting firm working for Blackburn’s campaign. “If this is omitted from the video it will be permitted to serve.”

Morning Score newsletter Your guide to the permanent campaign — weekday mornings, in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

On Monday, Blackburn took aim at the social media network in a fundraising email.

“This is urgent. I’m being censored for telling the truth,” Blackburn wrote. “Twitter has shut down my announcement video advertising. Silicon Valley elites are trying to impose their values on us. When I talked about our legislative accomplishments to stop the sale of baby body parts, they responded by calling our ad ‘inflammatory’ and ‘negative.’”

Blackburn is the leading candidate to replace Corker, with former Americans for Prosperity state director Andy Ogles also in the race on the GOP side. Army veteran James Mackler is running as a Democrat.