Ilhan Omar Republican Challenger Banned From Twitter Over Post Saying She Should Be Hanged

By Aris Folley, The Hill

29 November 19

witter has permanently suspended a campaign account belonging to Republican Danielle Stella, who is running to unseat Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) next year, following a report that her account shared lynching comments about the congresswoman.

A spokesperson for Twitter told The Hill late Wednesday that “the account was permanently suspended for repeated violations of the Twitter Rules.”

The Washington Times was first to report the suspension. In one tweet reported by the newspaper, Stella’s campaign account wrote that Omar “should be tried for #treason and hanged” if it was "proven @IlhanMN passed sensitive info to Iran."

The tweet was referring to unfounded allegations that have proliferated across right-wing media outlets claiming Omar gave sensitive information to the Iranian government.

Omar has strongly denied the allegations, with a spokesperson for her office telling the Jerusalem Post this month: “Since the day she was elected, Saudi Arabian trolls and mouthpieces have targeted Omar with misinformation and conspiracy theories.”

In another tweet, the Stella's account shared a link to an outlet that wrote about her initial remark while accompanying the post with an image of a stick figure being hanged.

"My suspension for advocating for the enforcement of federal code proves Twitter will always side with and fight to protect terrorists, traitors, pedophiles and rapists," Stella said in a statement provided by her campaign.

Twitter's move to suspend the campaign account comes as the social media giant has made efforts over the years to toughen its polices on hate speech and abusive behavior.  

On a webpage outlining its rules, the platform said “violence, harassment and other similar types of behavior discourage people from expressing themselves, and ultimately diminish the value of global public conversation.”

“Our rules are to ensure all people can participate in the public conversation freely and safely,” it adds.

Omar, one of the first two Muslim women to be elected to Congress, won election last fall in the overwhelmingly Democratic district and has repeatedly been a target for Republicans over her foreign policy views.