Twitter Claims It ‘Mistakenly’ Censored Mike Pence Tweet

Twitter hid a tweet from Vice President Mike Pence behind a “sensitive content” filter yesterday, meaning it was placed behind a label warning users that the tweet contained “sensitive material.” Twitter said the action was a mistake and it has been corrected.

According to Twitter, the Vice President’s tweet was “flagged as sensitive media in error,” and that the decision has been reversed.

The issue was noticed by Katie Waldman, press secretary to VP Pence.

“@Twitter are you kidding me? Please explain to me what it is sensitive about a video of
@Mike_Pence[‘s] day in New Hampshire,” tweeted Waldman.

This is not the first time that Twitter has censored a member of the U.S. executive branch by “mistake.” A year into President Trump’s first term, a “disgruntled customer support employee” was able to briefly delete the President’s personal Twitter account. The employee was later revealed to be Bahtiyar Duysak, a Turkish-German who was working for Twitter in the U.S. on a visa.

Errors with the “sensitive content” filter have also happened before. The Drudge Report, an influential aggregation site for conservative news, at one time had all of its tweets hidden behind the filter. This caused users who quote-tweeted the account including President Trump and his son, Donald Trump Jr., to have their quote-tweets filtered as well.

Users who wish to view all “sensitive media” on Twitter may choose to do so, either by clicking past the warning label or by toggling “Display media that may contain sensitive content” in their user settings.