Twitter suspends Vicky Hartzler personal Twitter account for tweet

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Social media company Twitter has suspended Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler’s personal account after a tweet that read “Women’s sports are for women, not men pretending to be women,” and included her television ad.

“Twitter believes the bigger threat is a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee saying women’s sports are for women. It's shameful, utterly ridiculous, and a horrible abuse of censorship by big tech giants to stifle free speech,” Hartzler's campaign said in a statement.

Twitter accounts can be banned for multiple reasons including account security at risk, spam and abusive tweets or behavior which breaks the "Twitter Rules."

According to an email sent to the campaign from Twitter, Hartzler must delete the tweet and wait twelve hours before Twitter will allow the account to tweet, retweet, follow or like posts on Twitter again. The campaign says Hartzler will not delete the tweet.

Hartzler is running for U.S. Senate.

Hartzler will face John Brinkmann, former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, U.S. Rep. Billy Long, Mark McCloskey, Deshon Porter, Dave Schatz, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt and Dave Sims in the Republican primary in August.

Hartzler has been the U.S. House Missouri District 4 since 2011.