Twitter suspended the account of Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), the chairman of the Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, because the social media platform said the account violated its media policy.
Daines’s @SteveDaines account did not show his profile or background photos as of Tuesday morning, and a slew of posts going back as far as last Friday showed a statement that read, “@SteveDaines’s account is temporarily unavailable because it violates the Twitter Media Policy.”
The statement also linked to Twitter’s sensitive media policy, which notes that users could not publish graphic media or adult content on their banner images or profile header, among other places.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), linking to a reporter’s tweet, alleged that Daines had been suspended from his account because he and his wife were shown hunting in his profile header. The Hill has reached out to Twitter for comment.
“This is insane. Twitter should immediately reverse this suspension,” NRSC spokesman Philip Letsou said in a statement.
Other Republicans rallied around Daines on Twitter and defended the Montana Republican.
“This is the family photo that got @SteveDaines put in twitter jail. Stop censoring our Montana way of life! Great shot, Cindy!” tweeted Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.), who included a photo of Daines and his wife hunting.
“Twitter has ridiculously suspended Sen. @SteveDaines because his profile picture is of him and his wife hunting…What a disgrace!” said Donald Trump Jr. in a post on Twitter.
Twitter owner Elon Musk said in a tweet early Tuesday afternoon that the situation was “being fixed” and Daines’s account on Twitter was ultimately active again with his tweets and profile header restored.
“Policy against showing blood in profile pic is being amended to ‘clearly showing blood without clicking on the profile pic,’” he said. “The intent is to avoid people being forced to see gruesome profile pics.”
— Updated at 4:29 p.m.