Twitter flagged another pro-life video with a warning label last week amid growing concerns about online censorship.
Far from objectionable, the video issued Friday by President Donald Trump’s campaign shows images of born and unborn babies, including an ultrasound and a newborn cuddling with his parents, as Trump speaks about how he will continue to defend the right to life.
“Life is the greatest miracle of all. We see it in the eyes of every new mother who cradles that wonderful, innocent, and glorious newborn child in her loving arms,” Trump says in the video. “Let us work together to build a culture that cherishes innocent life.”
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The campaign released the video just ahead of Trump’s historic appearance at the March for Life on Friday in Washington, D.C.
Soon afterward, however, Twitter stuck a warning label on the video, cautioning users that it contained “sensitive material,” The Washington Free Beacon reports.
The warning label typically is reserved for violent, graphic or sexual content. According to Twitter guidelines, the social media business tries to “limit exposure to sensitive images and videos and to prevent the sharing of potentially disturbing types of sensitive media.”
LifeNews.com also shared the video on our Twitter page, only to have it slapped with a “warning” label as well. Users still may see the video if they click past the warning.
Trump’s campaign slammed the move as “censorship,” according to the Free Beacon. Spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany said the images of babies and families are far from objectionable.
“Twitter’s censorship of the video launching President Trump’s pro-life coalition is a perfect example of the left stomping on any idea they don’t like,” she said. “This video shows children and families and highlights the sanctity of life. President Trump is the most pro-life President ever and his support for unborn children cannot be silenced.”
Twitter has been accused of bias against pro-lifers multiple times in the past. In November, for example, the pro-life organization Live Action said the social media site has been allowing a new pro-abortion group, Equity Forward, to attack pro-life organizations with a series of inflammatory ads.
Earlier in the year, makers of the pro-life film “Unplanned” had their Twitter account temporarily suspended, and then, after the account was restored, almost all of its followers mysteriously disappeared. Twitter eventually restored the account and all of its followers.
Other pro-lifers also have reported problems with the social media company. In 2018, Twitter temporarily suspended the account of disability rights and pro-life advocate Charlotte “Charlie” Fien, who has Down syndrome.
Twitter also refused to run an ad from the Susan B. Anthony List in 2017 because it contained the phrase “killing babies.” In the fall of that same year, it rejected another ad from pro-life U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn because she mentioned Planned Parenthood’s sales of aborted baby body parts. Twitter later reversed its decision after LifeNews and other news outlets reported about the matter.
For years, Live Action has said Twitter has been censoring its ads. Founder Lila Rose said the social media site blocked their ability to advertise and told them they would have to change information on the organization’s websites if they want to start advertising again.
In August 2019, Facebook also censored Live Action with a heavily biased “fact check” written by two abortionists. As LifeNews reported, Facebook tagged the Live Action post as “false news” because it explained why abortion is not medically necessary. Later, the pro-life group learned that Facebook’s fact-checking mechanism relied on two abortionists, Daniel Grossman and Robyn Schickler, who obviously have their own biases about the issue.
In September 2019, U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted during a closed-door meeting that his social media company “clearly was bias” against the pro-life group Live Action and its founder Lila Rose.
Over the summer, a whistle-blower at Pinterest also exposed how the site was blocking content from Live Action by placing it on a list with pornography sites and other objectionable content.
