Facebook pulls GOP Senate candidate's ad touting a violent vision of going 'RINO hunting'
- Eric Greitens ran an ad about "RINO hunting," which showed him storming a home along with armed men.
- The ad was pulled for violating Meta's policies on "prohibiting violence and incitement," per Axios.
Eric Greitens, a Missouri Senate candidate, is railing against Facebook, after the platform pulled his ad touting a violent vision of dealing with "weak RINOs."
Over the weekend, Greitens ran an ad featuring a hunting expedition for RINOs, a term for "Republicans in name only." In the video, Greitens is seen storming a house with a group of men dressed in military attire, appearing to simulate an armed raid on a politician who is "surrendering to Joe Biden."
"The RINO feeds on corruption and is marked by the stripes of cowardice ... There's no bagging limit, no tagging limit, and it doesn't expire until we save our country," Greitens is heard saying in the video.
Axios later confirmed that Meta, Facebook's parent company, had removed Greitens' video from the platform on Monday afternoon. "We removed this video for violating our policies prohibiting violence and incitement," a Meta spokesperson said, per the outlet.
Twitter has also flagged the video in a notice displayed to viewers before they are allowed to play the video.
"This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about abusive behavior. However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public's interest for the Tweet to remain accessible," read Twitter's notice.
Responding to Meta's actions, Greitens wrote in a Facebook post: "Facebook CENSORED our new ad calling out the weak RINOs. When I get to the US Senate, we are taking on Big Tech. WATCH the new ad that Facebook doesn't want you to see."
Greitens is known for having resigned as Missouri's governor in 2018. Before stepping down, he was accused of blackmailing a woman with whom he had an extramarital affair. The woman also accused him of sexually assaulting her.
The former lawmaker's ad ran the same weekend that Rep. Adam Kinzinger — a GOP congressman who has been branded a RINO for his anti-Trump stance — spoke out about receiving a mailed threat against him and his family.
Per Axios, Kinzinger also described Greitens as a "very bad man" for posting the taken-down ad. The Illinois lawmaker joined his Democratic colleagues like Reps. Ruben Gallego and Joaquin Castro in slamming Greitens over the video.
Greitens is not the only politician who has gotten into trouble for posting violent imagery. Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar was censured in November for tweeting a violent anime clip of himself slaying New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and President Joe Biden.