On mid-day Friday,
Twitter reversed its decision and unlocked Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's account, allowing the video that triggered the lock last Tuesday to remain on the platform.
Twitter had said
that the video -- showing protesters swearing and threatening McConnell with violence -- violated its violent threats policy, and that the account would not be unlocked until the video was
deleted.
The protests followed the mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio during the previous weekend. McConnell has refused to bring gun legislation to the floor of the Senate.
The lock resulted in a suspension of all Twitter advertising
by the Republican National Committee, campaign arms of the House and Senate GOP, the Senate Leadership Fund, and Donald Trump’s re-election campaign.
When the account
was unlocked, its first tweet was: "victory."
On Friday, Twitter still maintained that the video was a "clear violation" of its rules, but said it was reversing its decision based on
reconsideration of the intent behind posting the video, reported CNBC.
"After multiple appeals from [other] affected users [who posted the video] and Leader McConnell’s team confirming their intent to highlight the threats for public discussion, we
have reviewed this case more closely,” the company stated. “Going forward, the video will be visible on the service with a sensitive media interstitial and only in cases where the Tweet
content does not otherwise violate the Twitter Rules.”
A CNBC source said that the RNC and Trump campaign had collectively planned to spend $300,000 to $500,000 on Twitter
ads in August, depending on the ads’ performance. Meanwhile, "the NRSC had spent in the low five figures on Twitter this campaign cycle, according to spokesman Jesse Hunt. The NRCC declined to
comment on how much the organization spent on Twitter ads."
Twitter declined to comment on whether the advertising boycott had influenced its reversal.