Republican Vicky Hartzler currently represents Missouri’s Fourth Congressional District in Congress. A former high school home economics teacher, Hartzler has held the seat since 2011, but is leaving it to run for the US Senate seat Roy Blunt is vacating next year.
On Monday, Hartzler’s personal Twitter account (@VickyHartzlerMO) was suspended for purportedly violating Twitter’s “hateful conduct policy.” The tweet in question read: “Women’s Sports are for Women, not men pretending to be women.”
Hartzler recently released an ad (referenced in the tweet in question) addressing the issue of transgender athletes — particularly transwomen participating in women’s sports.
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In the ad, Hartzler explains: “I ran and coached girl’s track, and I won’t look away while woke liberals destroy women’s sports.”
Twitter’s “hateful conduct policy” provides, in part:
Hateful conduct: You may not promote violence against or directly attack or threaten other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, caste, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease. We also do not allow accounts whose primary purpose is inciting harm towards others on the basis of these categories.
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The suspension will only be lifted if the tweet is deleted.
The campaign’s response, per KOMU:
“Vladimir Putin is a murderous psychopath who invaded a sovereign nation causing death and destruction, and is currently allowed to tweet. Yet, Twitter believes the bigger threat is a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee saying women’s sports are for women. It’s shameful, utterly ridiculous, and a horrible abuse of censorship by big tech giants to stifle free speech,” her campaign said in a statement.
The campaign said Hartzler will not delete the tweet and Hartzler “will not back down to the woke mob or big tech giants.”
According to the Kansas City Star, Hartzler joins fellow Missouri Congressman Billy Long (also vying for the US Senate seat) in the Twitter Suspension Club. Long was hit with a suspension last month for a tweet asserting that the 2020 Election was stolen.
As candidates gear up for the 2022 primaries, it will be interesting to see whether and to what extent their messaging is censored by social media platforms.
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