Twitter shuts down Rep Blackburn's Senate campaign announcement video

House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn’s (R-TN) Senate campaign announcement ad has been blocked by Twitter over a statement the abortion rights opponent makes about the sale of fetal tissue for medical research. Chairman Blackburn, who is running for the seat being opened by the retirement of Sen Bob Corker (R-TN), boasts in the ad that she “stopped the sale of baby body parts.”

A Twitter representative told the candidate’s vendors on Oct 10 that the statement was “deemed an inflammatory statement that is likely to evoke a strong negative reaction." Twitter said the Blackburn campaign would be allowed to run the rest of the video if the flagged statement is omitted. While the decision keeps Chairman Blackburn from paying to promote the video on Twitter, it doesn’t keep it from being linked from YouTube and other platforms. Chairman Blackburn took to Twitter to urge supporters to re-post her video and join her in “standing up to Silicon Valley.”