The candidate for the position of lieutenant governor, the Democratic senator of North Carolina (United States), Rachel Hunt, saw an ad linked to her campaign being rejected by Twitter, reports the HuffPost this Thursday, June 15. The video, which defends abortion, is still available on the social network, but the budget allocated to it was not used to promote it. In other words: the platform refused to turn it into advertising.
The abortion in question
The reason for the refusal mentioned by Twitter is very clear: Rachel Hunt’s video deals with the right to abortion. In private exchanges between Twitter and Rachel Hunt’s campaign cabinet, consulted by HuffPost, an employee of the social network explicitly writes “It is the mention of support for abortion that is the problem here.”
He then added that the company could “share good news on the subject” in the coming weeks. “But at the moment, they still won’t be able to communicate on this issue,” she concluded.
Indeed, in the conditions of use of Twitter, and in particular in the section about announcements in health-related products, “abortion claims” are among the prohibited topics.
Consulting these conditions of use at Wayback MachineUsing a site to view websites in old, archived versions, Tech&Co was able to see that pro-abortion ads were already banned by Twitter in January 2022. Therefore, the denial of this ad is clearly unrelated to the arrival of Elon Musk at the head of the social network, which however particularly annoyed the moderation.
In the United States, it is common for political candidates to advertise on social networks, especially in the case of electoral campaigns. Currently, the Rachel Hunt video is still available on Twitter.
Source: BFM TV
