Twitter Shuts Down Democrat Campaign Account For Posting Deceptive Voting Information

Twitter called out Democrat Elizabeth Hernandes, who is facing off against GOP Rep.Kevin Brady for the Texas 8th Congressional District seat, stating a tweet from her campaign in August was in violation of its policies.

The official account for Hernandez’s campaign had been corresponding with a Twitter user who wished her luck and expressed disdain over the fact that her relatives in Texas were pro-Trump.

The Hernandez campaign account replied with, “Thank you! And remind all of your Trump supporting relatives to vote on Wednesday, November 4! (Since they’re Trump supporters, they might fall for it. Just saying…),” along with the laughing emoji.

Twitter stated that it forbids “posting or sharing content that may suppress participation or mislead people about when, where, or how to participate in a civic process.”

The tweet had been up for two full weeks before it was flagged and Twitter locked Hernandez’s campaign account preventing anyone from accessing it until the tweet was removed.

A staff member form the Democrat’s campaign said the comment was made in jest but agreed to take the tweet down.

Spokesperson Christopher Phipps said in an email, “In a jovial exchange with supporters on Twitter, one of our campaign staff was a little too loose with their words. The emoji at the end of the tweet indicates that the tweet was made in jest, not intended to actually mislead anyone. But when Twitter brought the tweet to our attention, we took action to take it down, out of an abundance of caution.”

This surprising move from Twitter goes against what Trump and other Republicans have said about the social media site favoring the Democrats and left-leaning policies.

In May the president signed an executive order that cuts federal funding for social media sites that censor its user’s political views which came just after Twitter called two of Trump’s posts “misleading” and slapped a warning label on them. The posts were about the risk of fraud with mail-in voting.