Donald Trump's Digital Director accuses Twitter of censorship
Gary Coby, the director of digital advertising and fundraising for Donald Trump’s campaign has claimed that Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey censored pre-approved adverts. Twitter denies the allegations that it backed out of a deal to promote the hashtag #CrookedHillary along with an emoji of a figure running off with a bag of money. The social media network claims that it did not want to appear partisan during the election.

Donald Trump's campaign was barred from placing adverts and using specially designed emojis on Twitter despite buying millions of dollars worth of ad space to do so during the run-up to the election.

The director of digital advertising and fundraising for Trump's presidential campaign has now accused Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey of personally censoring adverts that had been pre-approved.

Gary Coby claims in a piece for Medium.com that the adverts that sometimes consisted of specially devised emojis were pulled right at the last minute.

President-elect Donald Trump's campaign signed a deal for more than $5million with Twitter during the campaign. Twitter CEO Jack Dosey is pictured right. Trump is seen left on Saturday

The campaign planned to launch specific emoji attached to the hashtag #CrookedHillary — a hand holding a bag of money, and later to a figure of a person running with a bag of money

Coby accuses Twitter of playing politics stating the banning of the emoji adverts was both 'incredibly reckless and dangerous.'

Coby explains how the Trump campaign signed an 'upfront deal' with Twitter three months before election day.

Twitter did not allow this emoji to be used because it feared people wouldn't be able to distinguish between a political campaign and something that Twitter endorsed

In August 2016 the Trump campaign agreed to spend a minimum of $5million on various advertising elements, including promoted trends and custom hashtag emojis.

But less that one month later Coby claims the team experienced their first instance of censorship when he attempted to tweak the design of an emoji that had already been approved by the social network.

Twitter had agreed to have a 'hand receiving a moneybag' emoji that would be tacked on to every tweet including the hashtag 'CrookedHillary.'

Coby and the Twitter team decide to redesign the emoji 'into a running stick figure with a moneybag.'

Assuming the tweak in the design would automatically be approved, Coby was caught off guard when he was contacted by Twitter's Vice President of U.S. Sales, Dan Greene, just days before the first general election debate.

Green informed Coby that the company had refused to approve the change because they 'couldn't accuse someone of committing a crime they did not commit or were no under investigation for' and 'they claimed to fear litigation from Hillary Clinton'.

Coby tired to support his claim by stating Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation were under investigation for pay-for-play politics, but Twitter 'did not budge'.

'To me, this was clearly a BS reason that was made up to give them an out,' Coby wrote on Medium.com. 'I was also confidentially told from TW staff that the running stick figure emoji reached Adam Bain, COO, and he personally put a stop to it.'

With several months left to run on the campaign, Coby tried to orchestrate another custom-emoji campaign for the second presidential debate.

Gary Coby, pictured, the Trump Campaign’s Director of Digital Advertising, said the campaign signed a $5 million spending commitment in August to use special emojis during the campaign

This time, Coby working in-conjunction with Twitter designed a 'moneybag with wings emoji' that was once again approved by Twitter's legal team.

Once again, despite the pre-approval, with just one day before the campaign was set to go live, Coby was told that CEO Jack Dorsey had stepped in an shelved the idea completely.

Twitter COO Adam Bain and Dorsey said that the emoji needed to be pulled because 'there wasn't a paid-for-by disclaimer,' despite both the RNC and DNC running custom emojis without disclaimers.

Coby writes that when Twitter pulled the campaign for a second time it was clear to him that it was 'a political move and telling us otherwise was just insulting.'

The Trump campaign then pulled the remainder of Trump's Twitter spending campaigns causing the social network millions of dollars in lost ad revenue.

Coby told The Daily Caller that he believes the campaign was blocked deliberately in in the hopes of swaying the final outcome of the election.

'I think it's clear that Jack Dorsey was deeply involved in deciding how Twitter restricted advertising from GOP Presidential nominee, Donald J. Trump. From my personal experience, buying for Trump's campaign, it's clear that Twitter decided to block real advertising from a real candidate.'

A Twitter spokesperson denied such meddling in the political process in a statement: 'We have had specific discussions with several political organizations, including the Trump campaign, regarding branded emojis as part of broad advertising campaigns on Twitter.