Twitter Suspends Senate Candidate Austin Peterson For Using One of Twitter's GIFs

Twitter Suspended Government

After Austin Peterson announced that his Senate campaign would be accepting Bitcoin donations, his political opposition suggested that he was associated with Russian hacking efforts. Peterson replied with a GIF of Joseph Stalin that had the phrase “off to the Gulag.” This GIF was from Twitter’s own GIF library.

His political opposition stepped up the attack by mass-reporting his Twitter account, subsequently landing him with a 12 hour suspension.

In a statement given to KCTV, Peterson said:

Twitter and Democratic aligned super PACs are interfering with the federal senate race in Missouri by temporarily blocking my account due to a picture I shared which was located within Twitter’s own GIF file collection.

Sources / Relevant Material

  1. Austin Peterson Facebook Post (30 Jul 2018)
  2. KCTV5 "Twitter gives 12-hour ban to GOP Senate candidate in Missouri" by Caroline Sweeney and Nick Sloan (30 Jul 2018)
  3. Twitter - @CarolineKCTV5 - 1024005423244996609 (30 Jul 2018)
  4. Daily Caller "Twitter Issued GOP Candidate Temporary Ban Week Before Election" by Kyle Perisic (31 Jul 2018)