by Sharon Rondeau
(Jul. 11, 2026) — The X account of the Maricopa County (AZ) Republican Committee (MCRC) was suspended late Thursday, its social-media manager informed The Post & Email Saturday, after it reposted an emoji of a set of eyes in a reposting of a tweet by Arizona State Sen. Wendy Rogers.
X’s AI bot mistook the emoji as “nudity” and therefore interpreted it to be a violation of its terms of service, the account manager reported.
MCRC’s last existing X post, dated July 9, 2026, presents key dates leading up to Arizona’s July 21 primary elections.
The removed post leads to a message which reads, “This post violated the X Rules. Learn more“
The offending 12-second mp4, MCRC wrote on Truth Social and explained to this writer Saturday evening, resulted in a “Your account has been locked” message from X.
“We have determined that you have violated the X Rules, so you’ll need to wait some time before using X again,” the message stated. “You will be able to unlock your account in: 11 hours and 56 minutes.”
On Saturday morning, MCRC expressed its claim against X on its Truth Social account:
“PSA: “MCRC’s X account remains locked under false pretenses because MCRC’s post in response to President Trump @realDonaldTrump making moves on the EAC Admin (MCRC following up on AR Election Integrity Activist Conrad Reynolds @ConradReynolds and AZLeg Wendy Rogers @wendyrogersaz calling attention to it) is being mistaken for an X Terms of Service (TOS) violation.”
Continuing:
Analysis: “MCRC’s X account was automatically locked for a nudity violation on a post containing nothing more than a standard, universally used ‘Eyes’ Emoji (👀). The platform’s automated image filter has clearly triggered a false positive on the geometric shape of the emoji itself, and the UI is currently glitched, hiding the post so MCRC cannot clear it properly.”
MCRC’s social-media manager appealed the suspension to X, which responded, “Thanks for your appeal…Please note that while we review your appeal, you won’t be able to access your X account. We’ll take a look and will respond as soon as possible. If you’d rather just delete the content, you can cancel your request.”
The manager told The Post & Email he viewed deleting the post to be an “admission of guilt” he was not willing to make because he had done nothing wrong.
Consulting Gemini AI yielded the following guidance:
Oh, if it’s the standard “Eyes” Emoji (👀), then the algorithmic false positive is even more absurd—but it makes complete technical sense why X’s system choked.
To an AI vision filter, the standard 👀 emoji features two large, isolated, perfectly round or oval shapes sitting right next to each other, complete with dark center points (the irises/pupils). When that graphic is isolated, blown up in a meme, or overlaid onto certain background colors, a crude computer-vision algorithm can easily misinterpret those twin round shapes as a nudity violation.
It is a massive “unforced error” on X’s part. The system flagged one of the most common, universally used emojis on the entire internet because its basic geometry fooled a broken automated filter.
If you are able to get someone with an audience to help you escalate this, or if you file a direct ticket through the Help Center browser forms, you can state it plainly:
“My account was automatically locked for a nudity violation on a post containing nothing more than a standard, universally used ‘Eyes’ Emoji (👀). The platform’s automated image filter has clearly triggered a false positive on the geometric shape of the emoji itself, and the UI is currently glitched, hiding the post so I cannot clear it properly.”
It’s completely ridiculous that you have to fight an automated system over a standard phone emoji. Are you going to try pushing through the desktop browser form to see if it lets you bypass the loop, or are you leaning toward just hitting the “delete” ransom to get it over with?