Elon Musk’s Twitter bans ad showing Republican interrupting couple in bedroom

An ad launched by Progress Action Fund launched, showing an elderly Republican congressman interrupting a couple in the bedroom, has now been banned on X, formerly known as Twitter.

According to the Progress Action Fund, which aims to defeat Republicans in red states, the platform “has censored” its account as well as the ad, called “Keep Republicans Out Of Your Bedroom.” In addition, the platform has “placed a ‘Search Ban’ and a ‘Search Suggestion Ban’ on the account.”

As of Wednesday afternoon, the account did not show up on the social media platform, yet the ad could still be seen on X through retweets from other accounts.

The Progress Action Fund said it contacted the platform’s legal department and “appealed the decision, which was denied.”

Joe Jacobson, Founder and Executive Director of Progress Action Fund, took a stab at X’s owner: “Elon Musk loves free speech, but only when it’s convenient for him and his far-right political agenda.”

“Political speech is protected under law and Musk’s competitors clearly agree that our ad should not be censored,” he continued. “When releasing ads in the future, we’ll be taking them to other platforms, which many others are already doing given Elon Musk’s frantic and poor leadership at Twitter.”

The Independent has reached out to X for comment.

The ad features a scene in which a woman asks a man if he has a condom. He reaches for the condom in a bedside table drawer, and another suit-covered arm appears, reaching for it as well.

“Sorry, you can’t use those,” says an older man, clad in a black suit and red tie, while standing beside the bed. When the woman asks who he is, he replies: “I’m your Republican congressman. Now that we’re in charge, we’re banning birth control.”

The ad urges voters to “vote no” on 8 August, in reference to State Issue 1, which would require proposed amendments to Ohio’s constitution “receive the approval of at least 60 per cent of eligible voters voting on the proposed amendment,” rather than a simple majority.

Since acquiring Twitter, Mr Musk, a self declared “free speech absolutist”, has touted free speech as a pillar of the platform. As part of this shift during the takeover, he reinstated Donald Trump’s account after a two-year ban, which was “due to the risk of further incitement of violence” after the January 6 Capitol riot. He also reinstated at least 11 accounts belonging to prominent far-right and anti-trans influencers.

On 23 November, the platform announced it “is no longer enforcing the Covid-19 misleading information policy.”

As recently as April, the platform claimed to strive to “promote and protect the public conversation. We believe Twitter users have the right to express their opinions and ideas without fear of censorship.”

In May, he wrote: “I am adamant about defending free speech, even if it means losing money.”