Twitter briefly restricts Trump campaign account

Twitter briefly restricts Trump campaign account

U.S. President Donald Trump's re-election campaign's Twitter account was briefly restricted on Thursday, causing an outcry from Republican lawmakers who accused social media companies of acting like "speech police" and vowing to hold Twitter responsible.

Gloria Tso reports.

The Twitter account for U.S. President Donald Trump's reelection campaign was briefly restricted on Thursday (October 15).

That sparked an outcry among Republican lawmakers, who accused social media companies of acting like "speech police" and vowing to hold Twitter responsible.

The @TeamTrump account was temporarily blocked from sending tweets after it posted a video about Democratic opponent Joe Biden's son, which Twitter said violated its rules.

The video referred to a New York Post story from Wednesday which contained alleged details of Hunter Biden's business dealings with a Ukrainian energy company.

It also claimed Joe Biden had met with one of the company's advisers.

In a statement a Biden campaign spokesman said that Republican-led Senate committees have previously concluded that Joe Biden engaged in no wrongdoing related to Ukraine -- and he has also denied such a meeting.

A Twitter spokesman said earlier on Thursday the accounts of White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany and the New York Post had also been blocked -- because of the company's policies on hacked materials and posting private information.

But the Trump campaign was back to tweeting again on Thursday afternoon -- saying it was quote "re-posting the video Twitter doesn't want you to watch." A Twitter spokesman told Reuters that the site would not take action as alterations to the video meant it no longer violated its policies.

McEnany also tweeted again on Thursday, saying she regained access after deleting her post on the report.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted Wednesday that quote "our communication around our actions on the @nypost article was not great." And Twitter policy chief Vijaya Gadde announced late on Thursday the company has decided to make changes to its hacked materials policy following feedback, saying quote: "We will label Tweets to provide context instead of blocking links from being shared on Twitter."