Rep. Matt Gaetz, Florida Republican, accused Twitter of censoring pro-life content after the company briefly restricted access to an anti-abortion video he shared Wednesday on social media.
Mr. Gaetz posted the 74-second video from his congressional Twitter account on the 47th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade, the landmark case that effectively legalized abortion nationwide.
“It is my sincere hope that Roe v. Wade will be overturned as a consequence of President Trump’s transformational changes to the federal judiciary and our Supreme Court,” Mr. Gaetz said in the video. “Roe v. Wade defies science. It defies our collective understanding of humanity and it undermines the morality of our nation.”
Mr. Gaetz took aim at Twitter shortly afterward upon learning that the footage had been flagged by the social networking service as containing “potentially sensitive content” and was therefore not automatically loading for all users.
The Washington Times confirmed the video was flagged as the congressman described, meaning it would not automatically play on Twitter unless a user attempting to view the footage had adjusted the safety settings on their account to display media that may contain sensitive content.
Twitter users who have not adjusted the safety setting accordingly could still watch the video by acknowledging a warning message cautioning about the clip containing potentially sensitive content, but otherwise it would not play automatically.
“This continued censorship of #ProLife content is absurd,” Mr. Gaetz complained later on Twitter. “We won’t be silenced,” he said in subsequent tweet.
Twitter told The Washington Times later Wednesday that the congressman’s video had been flagged in error and has been corrected accordingly.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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