Twitter (X) may suspend accounts, temporarily or permanently, from their social networking service. Suspensions of high-profile accounts often attract media attention,[1] and Twitter's use of suspensions has been controversial.
Policy
Users who are suspended from Twitter, based on alleged violations of Twitter's terms of service, are usually not informed which of their tweets were the cause. They are told only that their accounts will not be restored, and they are told which of Twitter's rules the company claims were violated.[2] In addition to community guideline policy decisions, the Twitter DMCA-detection system and spam-detection system are sometimes manipulated or abused by groups of users attempting to force a user's suspension.[3]
Some commentators, such as technology entrepreneur Declan McCullagh and law professor Glenn Reynolds, have criticized Twitter's suspension and ban policies as overreaches of power.[4][5]
History
Between 2014 and 2016, Twitter suspensions were frequently linked to ISIL-related accounts. A "Twitter suspension campaign" began in earnest in 2015, and on one day, 4 April 2015, some 10,000 accounts were suspended.[6] Twitter repeatedly shut down accounts that spread ISIL material, but new ones popped up quickly and were advertised with their old Twitter handle; Twitter in return blocked those in what was called an ongoing game of Whac-A-Mole. By August 2014, Twitter had suspended a dozen official ISIL accounts,[7] and between September and December 2014 it suspended at least 1000 accounts promoting ISIL.[8] Twitter said that between mid-2015 and February 2016 it had suspended 125,000 accounts associated with ISIL and related organizations,[8] and by August 2016 had suspended some 360,000 accounts for being associated with terrorism (not all these were ISIL-related).[7]
In January 2016, Twitter was sued by the widow of an American man killed in the 2015 Amman shooting attack, claiming that allowing ISIL to continually use the platform, including direct messages in particular,[9] constituted the provision of material support to a terrorist organization. Twitter disputed the claim.[10][11] The lawsuit was dismissed by the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, upholding the Section 230 safe harbor, which dictates that the operators of an interactive computer service are not liable for the content published by its users.[11][12] The lawsuit was revised in August 2016, providing comparisons to other telecommunications devices.[9]
Twitter suspended multiple parody accounts that satirized Russian politics in May 2016, sparking protests and raising questions about where the company stands on freedom of speech.[13] Following public outcry, Twitter restored the accounts the next day without explaining why the accounts had been suspended.[14] The same day, Twitter, along with Facebook, Google, and Microsoft, jointly agreed to a European Union code of conduct obligating them to review "[the] majority of valid notifications for removal of illegal hate speech" posted on their services within 24 hours.[15] In August 2016, Twitter stated that it had banned 235,000 accounts over the past six months, bringing the overall number of suspended accounts to 360,000 accounts in the past year, for violating policies banning use of the platform to promote extremism.[16]
On 10 May 2019, Twitter announced that they suspended 166,513 accounts for promoting terrorism in the July–December 2018 period, stating there was a steady decrease in terrorist groups trying to use the platform owing to its "zero-tolerance policy enforcement". According to Vijaya Gadde, Legal, Policy and Trust and Safety Lead at Twitter, there was a reduction of 19% terror-related tweets from the previous reporting period (January–June 2018).[17][18][19][20][21]
In September 2017, Twitter responded to calls[22] to suspend U.S. President Donald Trump's account, clarifying that they will not do so as they consider his tweets to be "newsworthy".[23]
In October 2017, Twitter posted a calendar of upcoming changes related to enforcement. Among other things, Twitter promised to provide "a better experience for suspension appeals", including a detailed description to the user of how a suspended account violated the rules.[24]
In November 2017, Twitter gave a deadline of 18 December to comply with their new policy, adding: "You also may not affiliate with organizations that—whether by their own statements or activity both on and off the platform—use or promote violence against civilians to further their causes".[25] On 18 December, the accounts of several high-profile organizations were suspended.[26]
Following Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter in October 2022, it was reported that the platform was planning to end the use of permanent suspensions.[27] In November 2022, Musk stated that accounts that engage in impersonation without a "clear" parody label would be permanently suspended without warning.[28]
Many anti-fascist activists were purged from Twitter in November 2022 after Musk outsourced content moderation decisions to the platform's users, notably inviting right-wing journalist Andy Ngo to report anti-fascist accounts directly to him. Among those suspended were a group that provides armed security to LGBT events, accounts parodying Elon Musk, and a Palestinian news outlet known for criticizing the Israeli military.[29][30][31]
Incidents
Rose McGowan
In October 2017, actress Rose McGowan said that Twitter had suspended her account for 12 hours after she repeatedly tweeted about former film studio executive Harvey Weinstein's alleged sexual misconduct toward her and others. Twitter explained that McGowan's account had violated its privacy policy because one of her tweets included a private phone number. According to The New York Times, "Many Twitter users expressed outrage over Ms. McGowan's account being locked". After the tweet was removed, her account was unlocked several hours before the 12-hour ban was set to expire. A Twitter representative stated, "We will be clearer about these policies and decisions in the future".[32][33] Later that day, software engineer Kelly Ellis, using the hashtag #WomenBoycottTwitter, urged women to shun Twitter for 24 hours, beginning at midnight, in solidarity with McGowan and with "all the victims of hate and harassment Twitter fails to support". Several activists, celebrities, and journalists joined the boycott.[34] Others criticized the level of organization and the fact that it was only 24 hours.[35]
2018 fake followers purge
On 11 July 2018, The New York Times reported that Twitter would begin to delete fake follower accounts to increase the authenticity of the platform.[36][37]
The issue of fake follower accounts was highlighted in 2016 when Russian trolls, using both human-operated and bot accounts to appear legitimate, leveraged Twitter's reach among American voters in an interference campaign in that year's US elections.[38][39]
Several celebrities and public figures lost substantial numbers of followers from their Twitter accounts before and after the closure of these accounts.[40] These included Justin Bieber, Ellen DeGeneres, Jack Dorsey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Ari Fleischer, Pope Francis, Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande, Kathy Ireland, Paul Kagame, Ashton Kutcher, The New York Times, Shaquille O'Neal, Barack Obama, Katy Perry, Queen Rania of Jordan, Rihanna, Cristiano Ronaldo, Taylor Swift, Donald Trump, Twitter themselves, Variety magazine, Kim Kardashian, Oprah Winfrey, and YouTube.[40][41]
U.S. President Donald Trump said that social networks such as Twitter were "totally discriminating" against Republican Party and conservative users.[42] Twitter and its CEO Jack Dorsey clarified that the reduction in the followers count was part of the platform's efforts to cut down on spamming and bot accounts.[37][41] Dorsey's own account lost about 230,000 followers in the purge.[40]
On 27 July 2018, Twitter's stock went down by 20.5% (equivalent to $6 billion).[38] The user base declined to 325 million, down from 326 million.[43]
Donald Trump
On 7 January 2021, Twitter temporarily locked the account of U.S. President Donald Trump after multiple controversies, including his use of the platform to undermine the results of the 2020 presidential election and to incite the January 6 United States Capitol attack. On 8 January, Twitter permanently suspended Trump's account, citing his violation of Twitter's Glorification of Violence guidelines.[44][45] Twitter also suspended or heavily moderated accounts that enabled Trump to circumvent his ban, including the official @POTUS handle.[46][47] Trump congratulated Nigeria for blocking Twitter, and wrote that he had hosted Zuckerberg for dinner in White House.[48][49][50] Twitter was criticized for banning Trump but deleting Ali Khamenei tweets.[51][52] Twitter also suspended the "From the Desk of Donald J. Trump" (@DJTDesk) account, citing ban evasion as the reason.[53][54][55][56]
On 13 January 2021, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey tweeted about Trump's Twitter ban,[57] fearing that although the ban was the correct decision for Twitter as a company, Twitter's actions "set a precedent I feel is dangerous: the power an individual or corporation has over a part of the global public conversation". In 2022, Dorsey has continued voicing concern over Twitter's role in internet centralization with his tweet on 2 March, stating "centralizing discovery and identity into corporations really damaged the internet. I realize I'm partially to blame, and regret it".[58] Internet centralization continues to be a riveting conversation surrounding Twitter and its banning policies.[59]
On 19 November 2022, Trump's account was reinstated by Elon Musk.[60] Trump used his Twitter account once in August 2023 (posting about his mugshot) since its reinstatement, but has otherwise focused on making posts to his Truth Social social media platform.[61]
2022 suspensions of journalists
On 15 December 2022, a number of journalists, including journalists from The New York Times, CNN, Washington Post, and Voice of America had their accounts suspended. Musk claimed that the accounts had received a seven-day suspension for violating the platforms "doxxing" policy by sharing his "exact real-time location", with him comparing it to "assassination coordinates". However, it was reported that none of the suspended journalists had actually shared Musk's precise real-time location on their accounts.[63][64]
The suspensions were condemned by the United Nations, while the European Union threatened sanctions against Twitter under the EU's Digital Services Act that is scheduled to take effect in 2023 and requires social media companies to "respect media freedom and fundamental rights".[65] A number of American Democratic Party lawmakers also criticized the bans.[66]
Reporters Without Borders warned that if the suspensions were in retaliation for the journalists' work on Musk, they would be a "serious violation of the journalists' right to report the news without fear of reprisal".[67][68]
Most of the suspensions were lifted the next day, on 16 December 2022, after Musk put the decision on whether to reinstate the suspended accounts through an informal poll where 58.7% of voters chose lifting the suspensions immediately over 41.3% who voted to have the suspensions be lifted after 7 more days.[69][70] The unbanned accounts remained restricted from posting until they removed the tweets that were claimed to be in violation of Twitter rules. Some of the journalists later appealed the decision, arguing their tweets were not in violation.[71]
List of notable suspensions
2010–2015
| Individual/account | Description | Date | Duration | Reason for suspension |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operation Payback (@Anon_Operation) | Anonymous hacktivist campaign in support of online piracy and WikiLeaks | 8 December 2010 | Permanent | Coordinating denial-of-service attacks against PayPal, Mastercard and Visa.[72] |
| Courtney Love (@CourtneyLoveUK) | American musician and actress | 7 January 2011 | Permanent (original account) | Suspended days after fashion designer Dawn Simorangkir filed a defamation suit against Love over tweets made on 17 March 2009. It was the first high-profile defamation trial over a celebrity's comments on Twitter. Love now uses a different account (@Courtney).[73][74][75] |
| Michael Q Sullivan (@mqsullivan) | President of Empower Texans | 18–21 July 2011 | Temporary | Unknown.[76] |
| Anders Behring Breivik (@AndersBBreivik) | Norwegian far-right terrorist and perpetrator of the 2011 Norway attacks | 31 July 2011 | Permanent | After Breivik was arrested, his account was hacked by Anonymous, who said they would delete it.[77] It was later suspended.[citation needed] |
| Space Hijackers (@spacehijackers) | Anarchitects | 23 May 2012 | Temporary | Copyright complaint of the use of Olympics logo.[78] |
| BILL NYE THO (@Bill_Nye_tho) | Parody account | 18–19 July 2012 | Unknown.[79] | |
| Guy Adams (@guyadams) | British journalist for The Independent | 30–31 July 2012 | Publishing the company email address of NBC executive Gary Zenkel during the 2012 Summer Olympics, for which NBC and Twitter were in a partnership. Twitter initially encouraged NBC to file a complaint, then later apologized and unsuspended Adams after NBC withdrew its complaint.[80] | |
| BILL NYE THO (@Bill_Nye_tho) | Parody account | 19 September 2012 | Permanent; later reinstated | Impersonating a public figure. His account was reinstated in October 2013.[79] |
| Big Bird (@FiredBigBird) | Parody account | 3–4 October 2012 | Temporary | After Mitt Romney threatened to cut PBS funding, this account popped up posting doctored images of Big Bird in the unemployment line and begging. The account was suspended twice with the creator saying it might have been automated.[81] |
| Nick Griffin (@nickgriffinmep) | Far-right British National Party leader | 18–19 October 2012 | Publishing the address of a gay couple.[82] | |
| Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) | Hacktivist collective | 19 December 2012 | Publishing personal information belonging to Westboro Baptist Church lawyer and member Shirley Phelps-Roper.[83] | |
| HSM Press Office (@HSMPress) | Al-Shabaab account | 25 January 2013 | Permanent | Announced a death threat against Kenyan hostages unless Kenya's government met its demands.[84] |
| Burger King (@BurgerKing) | Restaurant account | 18 February 2013 | Temporary | A hacker changed the name to McDonald's and promoted their food.[85] |
| HSMPress (@HSMPRESS1) | Al-Shabaab account | 5 September 2013 | Permanent | Threatening to kill the Somali President.[86] |
| HSM Press (@HSM_Press) | Al-Shabaab account | 21 September 2013 | Broadcasting their goals about the Westgate shopping mall attack.[87] | |
| شبكة شموخ الإسلام (@shomokhalislam) | Al-Qaeda account | 29 September 2013 | Al-Qaeda's first official account.[88] | |
| Pace Picante (@Pace_Foods) | Spoof account | 2 December 2013 | A fake employ 'Miles' started messaging to Kyle Kinane. Later turned out to be a prank pulled by Comedian Randy Liedtke.[89] | |
| @Anon_Central and 30 other accounts | Hacktivists | 3 December 2013 | Misogynist abuse aimed at feminist campaigners on the social network.[90] | |
| Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades | Military wing of Hamas | 11 January 2014 | Unspecified but likely connected to Hamas's classification in the US and elsewhere as a terrorist organization. The organization continued to create new accounts, which were later also suspended. Further purges of Hamas accounts took place in 2016 and 2019.[91][92][93] | |
| Phil Mason (@thunderf00t) | British chemist, YouTuber and anti-feminist vlogger | 20 September 2014 | Temporary | Violating Twitter's abusive behavior policy by sharing content targeting feminist media critic Anita Sarkeesian during the Gamergate controversy.[94][better source needed] |
| Darwin BondGraha (@DarwinBondGraha) | Journalist | 11–12 December 2014 | Mistake after tweeting document obtained under state public records.[95] | |
| Godless Spellchecker (@GSpellchecker) | English atheist blogger and podcaster | 3–5 January 2015 | Alleged "targeted abuse or harassment". He had been repeatedly suspended in the past.[96] | |
| Charles C. Johnson (@ChuckCJohnson, @GotNewsDotCom and @CitizenTrolling) | American alt-right blogger | 24 May 2015 | Permanent | Violating Twitter's rules "around participating in targeted abuse" by tweeting the day before about "taking out" civil rights activist DeRay Mckesson, which Mckesson perceived as "a serious threat". Temporarily suspended three times prior.[97][98] |
| Jalibib Al-Jazrawi (@s_2f) | ISIL member | 19 July 2015 | Making a death threat against Nasser Al Qasabi.[99][additional citation(s) needed] | |
| Jared Fogle (@thejaredfogle) | Subway spokesman | 21 August 2015 | Pled guilty to possessing child pornography, soliciting minors for sex via the internet, and performing sex acts on minors, under a plea deal which sought to spare him a life sentence. Later sentenced to spend between 13 and 15.5 years in prison[100][101] | |
| George Zimmerman (@TherealGeorgeZ) | American man known for the killing of Trayvon Martin | 3 December 2015 | Tweeting confidential information about an ex-girlfriend, including revenge porn.[102] |
2016
| Individual/account | Description | Date | Duration | Reason for suspension | Followers at the time of suspension |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| İyad el-Baghdadi (@iyad_elbaghdadi) | Arab Spring activist | 1 January 2016 | Temporary | Mistaken for ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi by Twitter staff.[103] | |
| Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) | American conservative writer | 25 February 2016 | Permanent | Participating in targeted abuse.[104] | |
| Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades | Military wing of Hamas | March 2016 | Twitter attempted to remove all official accounts of the terrorist organization, but the organization swiftly opened new accounts. More accounts were suspended in 2019.[92][93] | ||
| Abu Obeida | Al-Qassam Brigades spokesperson | 15 April 2016 | |||
| Azealia Banks (@AZEALIABANKS) | American rapper | 12 May 2016 | Making racist and homophobic posts towards singer Zayn Malik.[75][105] Also made at least six other Twitter accounts over succeeding years, with bans in 2018,[106] 2019, and 2020,[107] before she was IP banned from the platform. She rejoined under the handle @Azealiaishere in April 2022[108] but this account was suspended two months later.[109] | 535,916[110] | |
| Milo Yiannopoulos (@nero) | British alt-right polemicist and political commentator | 19 July 2016 | Insulting Leslie Jones coinciding with a racist harassment campaign.[75][111][112][113] | ||
| Guccifer 2.0 | Hacking group or individual | 13 August 2016 | Temporary | Posting information illegally hacked from the Democratic National Committee.[114] Permanently suspended in 2018. | |
| PewDiePie (@pewdiepie) | Swedish YouTuber | 1 September 2016 | Pretending to be a member of ISIL.[75][115] | ||
| Richard B. Spencer | American neo-Nazi | 16 November – 12 December 2016 | Allegedly for using multiple overlapping accounts.[116][117] | ||
| Various "alt-right" accounts | 17 November 2016 | Permanent | Including accounts of National Policy Institute, Radix Journal, Ricky Vaughn, John Rivers, and others; banned for violating Twitter's policy prohibiting users from "inciting or engaging in the targeted abuse or harassment of others".[116][118] | ||
| Tila Tequila (@AngelTilaLove) | American social media personality | 22 November 2016 | Temporarily suspended on 4 March 2016, possibly for racist and violent behavior.[119] Permanently for making Neo-Nazi posts, including a photo of herself and other attendees rendering a Nazi salute at an event of the white nationalist National Policy Institute.[120] | 69,354[121] | |
| Jack Dorsey (@jack) | Twitter co-founder and CEO | Temporary | After restoring his account, Dorsey tweeted the suspension was due to an "internal mistake".[122][123] | ||
| John Rivello (@jew_goldstein) | Maryland Trump supporter[124] | December 2016 | Permanent | Sending an epileptogenic GIF to journalist with epilepsy Kurt Eichenwald.[125] | |
2017
| Individual/account | Description | Date | Duration | Reason for suspension | Followers at the time of suspension |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Martin Shkreli (@martinshkreli) | American hedge fund manager | 7 January 2017 | Permanent | Suspended for sexual harassment of journalist Lauren Duca.[75][126][127][128][129] | 191,968[130] |
| Mocha Uson | Filipina entertainer and Rodrigo Duterte supporter | 9 March 2017 | Temporary | Unknown.[131][132] | |
| Abhijeet Bhattacharya | Indian singer | 30 May 2017 | Harassing women including activist Shehla Rashid.[133] | ||
| Daniel Sieradski (@selfagency) | American writer and activist[134] | 8 June 2017 | Permanent | Unknown. Sieradski believes he was suspended for threatening violence against Baked Alaska or for arguing with Courtney Love about Linda Sarsour.[135] | 12,142[136] |
| Al Jazeera Arabic | Arabic-language news broadcaster | 17 June 2017 | Temporary | Unknown.[137] | |
| Anthony Cumia (@AnthonyCumia) | American radio personality and broadcaster | 11 July 2017 | Permanent | Permanently suspended for a transphobic comment against The A.V. Club writer Katie Rife. Cumia then made several accounts to get around the initial ban, which were subsequently permanently suspended as well.[138] | 368,068[139] |
| Popehat | American law blog | 3 August 2017 | Temporary | Posting personal information in screenshots of threats received.[140] | |
| Sargon Of Akkad (@Sargon_of_Akkad) | Alt-right activist | 9 August 2017 | Permanent; later reinstated (original account) | Unknown.[141] | |
| Alex Boivin | Twitter user | 23 August 2017 | Temporary | Suspended for sexual harassment of the cereal mascot Tony the Tiger.[142][143] | |
| @nemuismywife | Japanese man | 30 August 2017 | Permanent (original account) | Account permanently suspended for making a death threat towards a dead mosquito. The man started a new account.[144][145] | |
| Joseph Cox | Journalist for The Daily Beast | Temporary | Targeted by bots after writing story about suspicious activity by pro-Kremlin bots.[146] | ||
| Elizabeth Johnston | Christian blogger | 31 August 2017 | Criticizing article of Teen Vogue which promoted anal sex amongst teenagers.[147] | ||
| @themoodforluv | American woman | 7 September 2017 | Permanent | Harassment of singer Taylor Swift.[148] | 55,499[149] |
| Rose McGowan | American actress and activist | 12 October 2017 | Temporary | Account temporarily suspended for posting a private phone number.[150][151] | |
| Roger Stone (@RogerJStoneJr) | American conservative political consultant and lobbyist | 29 October 2017 | Permanent; later reinstated | Banned for harassment of CNN journalists.[152] Stone later threatened legal action against Twitter.[153] The account was later reinstated on 7 December 2022.[154] | 289,273[155] |
| Kamaal Rashid Khan | Indian actor and film critic | 30 October 2017 | Permanent (original account) | After the ban, Khan announced his intention to take legal action against Twitter; he later created a new account.[156][157] | |
| Andrew Tate (@cobratate) | Men's rights activist | 31 October 2017 | Permanent; later reinstated (original account) | For saying rape victims "bear some responsibility" for putting themselves in a position to be assaulted.[158] | |
| 2752 Russian troll accounts | 1 November 2017 | Permanent | Twitter's internal investigation linked the accounts to Russia's Internet Research Agency.[159] | ||
| "Jenna Abrams" (@Jenn_Abrams) | Alt-right blogger | 2 November 2017 | Unmasked as a fictitious person operated by a Russian troll factory.[160] | ||
| Donald Trump (@realDonaldTrump) | President of the United States | 3 November 2017 | Temporary | Account briefly deactivated by a rogue Twitter employee on their last workday.[161] | |
| Robert Delaware | American man | 6 November 2017 | Mistaken for a Russian troll account.[162] | ||
| Talib Kweli | Musician | 14 November 2017 | Account locked after posting business address of online harasser who posted threats and racist slurs; restored after he deleted the tweet. The account of the harasser, extremist attorney Jason Lee Van Dyke, was suspended.[163] | ||
| Baked Alaska (@bakedalaska) | Alt-right activist | 15 November 2017 | Permanent; later reinstated | Repeated and/or non-consensual slurs, epithets, racist and sexist tropes, or other content that degrades someone, and posting a photoshopped image of Laura Loomer inside a gas chamber.[164] After five years, Baked Alaska's account was reinstated on 10 December 2022. | 193,308[165] |
| Pakistan Defence Forum (@defencepk) | Forum for discussing Pakistan's armed forces | 19 November 2017 | Permanent | Suspended for posting doctored photo and fake news.[166] | 308,351[167] |
| Wael Abbas (@waelabbas) | Egyptian journalist, blogger, and human rights activist | 15 December 2017 | Unknown.[168] | 350,761[169] | |
| Paul Golding (@GoldingBF) and | Leader of fascist group Britain First | 18 December 2017 | Contravention of new rule about people 'that affiliate with organizations that use or promote violence against civilians to further their causes'.[170] The organization had posted videos with false and misleading captions attributing violence to Muslims, which were re-tweeted by Donald Trump.[171] | 55,048[172] | |
| Jayda Fransen (@JaydaBF) | Deputy leader of fascist group Britain First | 94,700[173] | |||
| Nordic Resistance Movement (@nordicfrontier) | Nordic white nationalists | Affiliation with organizations that use or promote violence against civilians to further their causes.[170] | 2,573[174] | ||
| Jared Taylor (@jartaylor) and American Renaissance | American white nationalists | 41,021[175] | |||
| Michael Hill (@MickCollins1951) and League of the South | |||||
| Traditionalist Worker Party | |||||
| American Nazi Party (@ANP14) | American Nazis | 13,325[176] | |||
| fuck every word (@fuckeveryword) | Twitter bot | 20 December 2017 | Permanent; later reinstated | Tweeting "fuck niggers".[177] The account was later reinstated on 25 June 2023. | 117,555[178] |
| James Allsup (@realJamesAllsup) | Far-right political commentator | 26 December 2017 | Permanent | Unknown.[179] | 23,894[180] |
| Tyler Barriss (@SWAuTistic) | Suspect in deadly 2017 Wichita swatting incident | 30 December 2017 | Barriss' account was suspended after the Los Angeles police arrested him as the suspected "swatter" who later pled guilty to placing a fake 911 call that led a police officer to kill an innocent man in Wichita, Kansas.[181] | ||
2018
| Individual/account | Description | Date | Duration | Reason for suspension | Followers at the time of suspension |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| David Clarke | American former sheriff of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin | 2 January 2018 | Temporary | Suspended for three posts that appeared to encourage violence against the media, including one tweet stating: "Punch them in the nose & MAKE THEM TASTE THEIR OWN BLOOD". Suspension lifted after Clarke deleted the posts.[182][183] | |
| Golden Dawn | Greek ultranationalist party | 5 January 2018 | Permanent | Broadening of hateful conduct policy to encompass incitement to violence.[184] | |
| Paul Nehlen (@pnehlen) | Congressional candidate challenging Speaker Paul Ryan in Republican primary | 13 February 2018 | Banned after posting a racist tweet targeting Meghan, Duchess of Sussex (also known as Meghan Markle).[185] | 90,176[186] | |
| Tommy Robinson (@TRobinsonNewEra) | British nationalist | 28 March 2018 | Hateful conduct.[187] | 413,334[188] | |
| Craig R. Brittain (@SenatorBrittain) | Republican US Senate candidate in Arizona, former operator of "revenge porn" website | 30 March 2018 | Suspended after suggesting that the survivors of the Parkland, Florida Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, had been paid by firearms regulation groups.[189] Brittain sued Twitter for banning his accounts.[190] The suit was dismissed as frivolous.[189] | 107,201[191] | |
| Owen Benjamin (@OwenBenjamin) | American comedian and far-right conspiracy theorist | 5 April 2018 | Offensive tweets directed at David Hogg.[192] | 122,634[193] | |
| Sabo (@UnsavoryAgents) | American street artist | 13 April 2018 | Permanent [citation needed] | Unknown.[194] | 32,264[195] |
| Mike Enoch (@mikeenochsback) | White nationalist | 16 April 2018 | Permanent [citation needed] | Hateful conduct.[196] | 17,567[197] |
| Bezalel Smotrich | Israeli politician and Knesset member | 23 April 2018 | Temporary | Suspended for 12 hours for "offensive behavior" after tweeting, regarding Ahed Tamimi, a 17-year-old Palestinian serving an eight-month jail sentence for a videotaped assault of an Israeli soldier: "In my opinion, she should have gotten a bullet, at least in the kneecap".[198][199] | |
| Bkub Okawa (@bkub_comic) | Creator of Pop Team Epic | 8 June 2018 | Unknown; possibly due to either a coordinated campaign by his critics or for making a flippant comment about wanting to kill someone over an argument about Lawson products.[200] | ||
| Masao Shiro (@mr_beck36) | Mangaka | Permanent | Using the word jjokbari, a Korean anti-Japanese slur, while suggesting an anime adaptation of his manga Taekwondoer Park.[201] | 7,535[202] | |
| Splinter News and other users | American news site | 20 June 2018 | Temporary | Linking to their story featuring and posting Stephen Miller's cell phone number.[203][204] | |
| @EricHartleyFrnd | Account used by Jarrod Ramos | 28 June 2018 | Permanent | Jarrod Ramos was arrested after he shot and killed five employees at The Capital during the mass shooting.[205] | 899[206] |
| "Darren Mills" | Russian-linked account | 4 July 2018 | Unmasked as a fictitious person operated by a Russian troll factory.[160] | ||
| 70 million automated, troll, and fake accounts | 6 July 2018 | Part of a crackdown on malicious activity.[207][208] | |||
| Guccifer 2.0 (@GUCCIFER_2) | Russian-linked accounts | 14 July 2018 | Connected to a network of accounts previously suspended for operating in violation of Twitter's rules.[209] | 42,548[210] | |
| DCLeaks (@dcleaks_) | |||||
| Peter van Buren (@WeMeantWell) | Former United States Foreign Service employee and writer | 5 August 2018 | Banned for harassing Jonathan M. Katz in posts.[211][non-primary source needed] | 7,690[212] | |
| Candace Owens | American conservative activist | Temporary | Banned in error after tweeting the content of several Sarah Jeong's controversial tweets about white people, and changing races and religions mentioned in the tweets.[213] | ||
| Blair Cottrell | Australian far-right activist and former leader of the United Patriots Front | 7 August 2018 | Joking about raping Sky News Australia presenter Laura Jayes.[214] | ||
| Proud Boys (@ProudBoysUSA) | North American neo-fascist organization | 11 August 2018 | Permanent | Violating policy on "violent extremist groups".[215] | 36,869[216] |
| Gavin McInnes (@Gavin_McInnes) | Founder of the neo-fascist organization Proud Boys | 266,640[217] | |||
| Talbert W. Swan II | American prelate of the Church of God in Christ | 22 August 2018 | Permanent; later reinstated | Hateful conduct.[218] Possibly for calling Candace Owens a "coon". Swan's account was reinstated on 4 September 2018, which he attributed to thousands of his followers calling for Twitter to lift the suspension.[219] | |
| Becky Lucas | Australian comedian | September 2018 | Permanent (original account) | Posting "content that was threatening and/or promoting violence" by jokingly tweeting, "Oi @ScottMorrisonMP I'm gonna chop your fucking head off".[220][221] Lucas now uses a new account. | |
| InfoWars (@infowars) | American conspiracy website | 6 September 2018 | Permanent;[222] later reinstated | Alex Jones was first suspended for a week on 14 August 2018 for violating policy on "inciting violence",[223] and was later banned on 6 September for violating policy on "abusive behaviour".[224] Both accounts were later reinstated on December 9, 2023.[225] | 430,803[226] |
| Alex Jones (@RealAlexJones) | Founder of the conspiracy website InfoWars | 898,610[227] | |||
| Kris Paronto | Former US Army Ranger | 10 September 2018 | Temporary | Using the word "retard" and the hashtags #YouAreAnIdiot and #NeverGoFullRetard.[228] | |
| James Woods | American actor | 20 September 2018 | Posting hoax political meme on 20 July 2018, specifically a fake message, supposedly from Democrats, that urged men not to vote in the midterm elections. Woods received an email from Twitter stating that the tweet had "the potential to be misleading in a way that could impact an election". Woods refused to delete the tweet himself.[229] He was allowed to return in October 2018.[230] | ||
| @CongressEdits | Twitter bot | 3 October 2018 | Permanent | Automatically rebroadcasting Wikipedia edits that doxed members of Congress.[231] | 71,002[232] |
| Dozens of Occupy movement activists | 11 October 2018 | No explanation from Twitter.[233] | |||
| @Infowars_EU | Accounts affiliated with Alex Jones and InfoWars | 22 October 2018 | Ties with Alex Jones and InfoWars after "numerous violations and warnings".[234] | 2,627[235] | |
| @InfowarsArmy | 3,312[236] | ||||
| @InfowarsCrew | 7,401[237] | ||||
| @InfowarsInsider | |||||
| @InfowarsMag | |||||
| @InfowarsPapers | |||||
| @InfowarsReports | 27,238[238] | ||||
| @InfowarsShop | |||||
| @PrisonPlanetTV | 221,373[239] | ||||
| @RealInfoStore | 4,672[240] | ||||
| @RealNewsX2 | 18,222[241] | ||||
| @TheNewsWars | 3,560[242] | ||||
| @WarRoomMemes | 4,637[243] | ||||
| @WarRoomShow | 26,930[244] | ||||
| 4 other accounts | |||||
| @hardrock2016 | Accounts used by Cesar Sayoc | 26 October 2018 | After the mail bombing attempts against Donald Trump critics and Democratic Party politicians, Sayoc's profiles were found to have posted far-right political conspiracy theories, graphic images and specific threats.[245] | 89[246] | |
| @hardrockintlet | |||||
| Smash Racism D.C. (@SmashRacismDC) | Antifa group from Washington, D.C. | 7 November 2018 | Posting the home addresses of Tucker Carlson along with other family members following a protest outside Carlson's home.[247] | 9,701[248] | |
| Meghan Murphy (@MeghanEMurphy) | Canadian journalist | 15 November 2018 | Permanent; later reinstated | Banned for "hateful conduct" following a heated exchange which involved misgendering a transgender woman.[249] | 24,004[250] |
| Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) | American political activist, conspiracy theorist and Internet personality | 22 November 2018 | Permanent; later reinstated | Hateful conduct, suspended for a tweet attacking Ilhan Omar by accusing her of being "pro-Sharia" and "pro-FGM".[251] | 264,811[252] |
| Jesse Kelly | Conservative talk radio host and former Republican congressional candidate | 25 November 2018 | Temporary[253] | Kelly indicated in comments to other conservatives that he received a message saying that his account was "permanently suspended due to multiple or repeat violations of the Twitter rules"; however, Twitter, when contacted by The Hill after Kelly returned, described it as temporary.[254] | |
| @putinRF_eng | Impostor | 26 November 2018 | Permanent | Impersonating Russian president Vladimir Putin after a complaint to Twitter from Russian officials.[255] | 1,007,789[256] |
| Amos Yee (@TheAmosYee) | Singaporean blogger | 10 December 2018 | Permanently banned for supporting pedophilia.[257] | 645[258] | |
| Andile Mngxitama | Leader of the Black First Land First | 17 December 2018 | Temporary | Banned for a minimum of seven days after Mngxitama made threats to kill 5 White South Africans for every taxi driver killed in response to comments made by businessman Johann Rupert.[259] | |
2019
| Individual/account | Description | Date | Duration | Reason for suspension | Followers at the time of suspension |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stephanie Sargnagel | Austrian author and artist | 31 January 2019 | Permanent; later reinstated | Suspended for posting tweet that translates[citation needed] to: 'Austria, you stupid son of a bitch, I am going to kill you'.[260] | |
| Ali Khamenei (@khamenei_ir) | Supreme Leader of Iran | February 2019 | Temporary | Account locked for 24 hours for posting a tweet endorsing the 1989 fatwa against Salman Rushdie.[261] | |
| Jacob Wohl (@JacobAWohl) | American conspiracy theorist, fraudster and hoaxer | 26 February 2019 | Permanent | Creating and operating fake accounts after boasting he intended to manipulate the 2020 United States presidential election results in a USA Today interview.[262] | 186,330[263] |
| Brenton Tarrant (@BrentonTarrant) | Perpetrator of the Christchurch mosque shootings | 15 March 2019 | Posting pictures of the firearms he later used in the attacks.[264] | 6[265] | |
| Carl Benjamin (@CarlUKIP) | UKIP accounts | 26 April 2019 | Violating Twitter's terms of service.[266] | 11,905[267] | |
| Tommy Robinson (@TRobinsonMEP) | 4,814[268] | ||||
| Correo del Orinoco | Pro-Maduro Venezuelan newspapers | 1 May 2019 | Unknown | Unspecified; occurred during the 2019 Venezuela uprising.[269] | |
| Diario VEA | |||||
| David Horowitz (@horowitz39) | Conservative activist and author | 7 May 2019 | Temporary | Unknown.[270] | |
| Min Aung Hlaing (@SGMinAungHlaing) | Commander-in-Chief of Tatmadaw | 16 May 2019 | Permanent | Spreading propaganda against Rohingya people.[271] | |
| Chiitan (@ogecebel) | Mascot of the town of Susaki, Japan | 17 May 2019 | Permanent (original account) | Unknown.[272] | 1,109,688[273] |
| Nebojša Krstić (@Krle22) | Serbian pundit aligned with the Serbian Progressive Party | Permanent | Harassment of Vreme journalist Jovana Gligorijević.[274][275][276] | 24,046[277] | |
| Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) | Resistance Twitter activists | 23 May 2019 | Permanent; later reinstated | Operating fake accounts.[278] | 698,039[279] |
| Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) | 925,802[280] | ||||
| Eoin Lenihan (@EoinLenihan) | Researcher and educator | 29 May 2019 | Banned from Twitter for abusing multiple accounts.[281] | 6,524[282] | |
| @TheTweetOfGod | Account operated by David Javerbaum | 11 June 2019 | Temporary | Tweeting, "If gay people are a mistake, they're a mistake I've made hundreds of millions of times, which proves I'm incompetent and shouldn't be relied upon for anything".[283] | |
| Luke Taylor (@luketaylorjail) | Internet troll | 8 July 2019 | Permanent | Sustained harassment of the Planters snack food mascot, Mr. Peanut.[284][285] | |
| Louis Farrakhan | Leader of The Nation of Islam | 9 July 2019 | Temporary | Banned for using "language that dehumanizes others on the basis of religion".[286] | |
| Lindsay Shepherd | Free-speech activist | 16 July 2019 | Permanent; later reinstated | Banned for "hateful conduct" following a heated exchange with a transgender woman and LGBTQ advocate from Vancouver.[287][288][289][290] | |
| Connor Stephen Betts (@iamthespookster) | Perpetrator of the 2019 Dayton shooting | 4 August 2019 | Permanent | [291][292] | 381[293] |
| Patrick Wood Crusius (@PatrickCrusius) | Perpetrator of the 2019 El Paso shooting | ||||
| Team Mitch (@Team_Mitch) | Political campaign for US Senator Mitch McConnell | 7–9 August 2019 | Temporary | Posting a video that included violent threats against McConnell.[294] | |
| 200 000 Chinese accounts | 19 August 2019 | Permanent | Believed the accounts were part of a Chinese government influence campaign targeting the protest movement in Hong Kong.[295] | ||
| Pauline Hanson | Australian senator and leader of Pauline Hanson's One Nation | 22 August 2019 | Temporary | Suspended for "violating rules against abuse and harassment" by posting video advocating the use of violence against protesters.[296] | |
| Raúl Castro (@RaulCastroR) | Cuban government-affiliated accounts | 12 September 2019 | Permanent | Unspecified breach of rules.[297] | 295,350[298] |
| Mariela Castro (@castroespinm) | Temporary | ||||
| Mesa Redonda (@mesaredondacuba) | |||||
| Granma Digital (@Granma_Digital) | |||||
| Radio Rebelde (@radiorebeldecu) | |||||
| Briscoe Cain | Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives | 13 September 2019 | Temporary | Suspended for 141 days after refusing to remove a perceived violent threat against Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke.[299] | |
| Saud al-Qahtani (@saudq1978) | Former media consultant to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman | 20 September 2019 | Permanent | Banned for violating the company's "platform manipulation" policies.[300] | 1,301,374[301] |
| DotDev.ae | Operator of bot accounts in the United Arab Emirates | Spreading information about Qatar and the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen.[300] | |||
| Hamas and Hezbollah–affiliated accounts, including Al-Manar and the Quds News Network | 1 November 2019 | Part of Twitter's crackdown on "illegal terrorist organizations and violent extremist groups", conducted after reviewing accounts highlighted by US representatives Josh Gottheimer, Tom Reed, Max Rose, and Brian Fitzpatrick, who accused Twitter of violating the law by doing business with "foreign terrorist organizations". Twitter reversed its previous decision to allow a platform for non-military arms of terrorist organizations.[93][302][303] | |||
| Will Sloan | Canadian film critic and podcaster | 21 November 2019 | Temporary | Suspended for tweets about the fictional character Baby Yoda.[304] | |
| Danielle Stella (@2020MNCongress) | Republican candidate potentially challenging US Rep. Ilhan Omar in the 2020 election | 27 November 2019 | Permanent | Repeated rule violations; one tweet read, "If it is proven @IlhanMN [Ilhan Omar] passed sensitive info to Iran, she should be tried for #treason and hanged".[305] | 28,743[306] |
| Pete Hegseth | Fox News contributor | 8 December 2019 | Temporary | Banned for posting an anti-American manifesto that was written by Mohammed Alshamrani, the Saudi Arabian military cadet who shot and killed three people and injured 12 when he opened fire at Naval Air Station Pensacola on 6 December 2019.[307] | |
| 88 000 Saudi-linked accounts | 20 December 2019 | Permanent | State-backed information operations originating in Saudi Arabia that "violated platform manipulation policies".[308] | ||
2020
| Individual/account | Description | Date | Duration | Reason for suspension | Followers at the time of suspension |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dozen accounts associated with Venezuela's government and military | 8 January 2020 | Unknown | Unspecified breach of rules.[309] | ||
| Zero Hedge (@zerohedge) | Far-right libertarian financial blog | 31 January 2020 | Permanent; later reinstated | Publishing an article falsely accusing a Wuhan Institute of Virology doctor of releasing SARS-CoV-2 as a biological weapon and doxxing said doctor.[310] The account was reinstated in June 2020 with Twitter saying the suspension was in error.[311] | 1,025,431[312] |
| @BabyNutBaby | Meme accounts tied to Planters | 3 February 2020 | Permanent | Astroturfing in support of the "Baby Nut" campaign. The main Mr. Peanut (@MrPeanut) account was not suspended.[313] | 430[314] |
| @BabyNutLOL | |||||
| @BabyNutMemes | 336[315] | ||||
| 70 pro–Michael Bloomberg accounts | 21 February 2020 | Posting identical messages, which Twitter said amounted to spam and "platform manipulation".[316] | |||
| Andrew Walz (@WalzRI) | Fake Republican candidate account | 28 February 2020 | A fake account claiming to be a Republican running for Congress in Rhode Island's 1st congressional district, whose teenaged operator tricked Twitter into blue check verifying it.[317] | ||
| Jack Burkman (@Jack_Burkman) | Lobbyist and conspiracy theorist | 19 March 2020 | Tweeted unevidenced claims about impending nationwide food shortages due to the COVID-19 pandemic, following repeated infractions of Twitter rules, including making false statements about COVID-19.[318] | 28,667[319] | |
| Jaboukie Young-White (@jaboukie) | American comedian | 23 March 2020 | Temporary | Impersonating verified accounts such as CNN. Young-White's account was later restored, although it was stripped of its verified status.[320] | |
| The Federalist (@FDRLST) | American conservative website | 25 March 2020 | Account locked for promoting an article advocating COVID-19 pox parties, which was harshly criticized by public health officials.[321] | ||
| 8558 pro–Serbian Progressive Party and pro-Aleksandar Vučić accounts | 2 April 2020 | Permanent | Posting positive news coverage of the Serbian Progressive Party and Aleksandar Vučić and attacking their political opponents, with Twitter saying that the accounts "engaged in inauthentic coordinated activity".[322][323] | ||
| Metawin Opas-iamkajorn (@Winmetawin) | Thai actor | 8 April 2020 | Temporary | Unspecified.[324][325] | |
| Chinese embassy in Sri Lanka (@ChinaEmbSL) | Chinese government agency | 13 April 2020 | For using undiplomatic language against social media users while responding to allegations against China.[326][327] | ||
| Owen Shroyer (@allidoisowen) | InfoWars personalities | 16 April 2020 | Permanent | Promoting violence in a Texas rally against the stay-at-home order during the COVID-19 pandemic and evading the permanent suspension of Alex Jones and InfoWars.[328] | 163,703[329] |
| Rob Dew (@DewsNewz) | 68,679[330] | ||||
| Banned.Video (@BANNEDdotVIDEO) | 10,886[331] | ||||
| Alex (@alx) | Turning Point USA ambassador | 17 April 2020 | Permanent; later reinstated | Violating Twitter's manipulation and spam policy after sharing a meme of Xi Jinping generated by using Joe Biden's avatar generator from his website.[332] His account was reinstated on 20 November 2022. | 80,567[333] |
| Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) | American conservative activist | 2 May 2020 | Temporary | Banned after tweeting criticism of Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer's stay-at-home order and encouraging the state's citizens to violate the directive.[334] | |
| Joey Salads (@JoeySalads) | American conservative media personality | 12 May 2020 | Permanent | Violating Twitter's manipulation and spam policy.[335] | 277,043[336] |
| @ANTIFA_US | Fake Antifa account | 2 June 2020 | Fake antifa account created by white supremacists; suspended for violating the policy on fake accounts.[337][338] | ||
| 170 000 Chinese, 1000 Russian, and 7340 Turkish accounts | 11 June 2020 | Found to be linked to propaganda and disinformation supportive of their respective governments.[339] | |||
| Katie Hopkins (@KTHopkins) | British columnist and far-right activist | 19 June 2020 | Temporarily on 30 January 2020 possibly due to a tweet she made about rapper Stormzy.[340] Permanently, for "violations of the hateful conduct policy" after she voiced opposition to a school program providing meals for hungry children.[341] | 1,100,106[342] | |
| Logan Cook (@carpedonktum) | Pro-Trump meme account | 23 June 2020 | Account suspended for half an hour on 14 October 2019 for sharing an edited scene from the 20th Century Studios' film Kingsman: The Secret Service depicting Trump murdering journalists, politicians, and news outlets.[343][344] Permanently banned for "repeated violations of this policy" after he created a fake CNN "racist toddlers" video of two toddlers, one black and one white, running toward each other and hugging, before running away together which Twitter added a "manipulated media" label on the video as racist. The video was taken down by Twitter following a copyright complaint made by the original content owner.[345] | 273,257[346] | |
| Distributed Denial of Secrets (@DDoSecrets) | Activist group | Publishing BlueLeaks, 269 gigabytes of internal US law enforcement data obtained by the hacker collective Anonymous, for "dissemination of hacked materials" and "information that could have put individuals at risk of real-world harm".[347] | 36,346[348] | ||
| Graham Linehan (@Glinner) | Television writer | 27 June 2020 | Permanent; later reinstated and then later suspended | Repeated acts of platform manipulation and hateful conduct towards transgender individuals.[349] In December 2020, Linehan attempted to circumvent the ban by activating another new account (@scarlysimon), which was subsequently permanently suspended as well.[350] The account was later reinstated on 22 December 2022. It was later suspended on 15 April 2023. | 587,284[351] |
| Conservative Party of New York State | Political party | July 2020 | Temporary | An automated spam filter had misidentified the party account as disseminating spam. Twitter undid the error on 10 September, two months after the erroneous suspension.[352] | |
| Stefan Molyneux (@stefanmolyneux) | Far-right activist and conspiracy theorist | 7 July 2020 | Permanent; later reinstated | Operating fake accounts.[353][354] | 482,874[355] |
| Over 50 accounts of white nationalist organizations from several countries, including Martin Sellner (@Martin_Sellner) | 10 July 2020 | "Violating [Twitter's] policies in relation to violent extremism".[356][357] Sellner was unsuspended in March 2024.[358] | |||
| Various users | 15 July 2020 | Unknown | Posting screenshots of Twitter internal control panels following the 2020 Twitter bitcoin scam.[359] | ||
| Approx. 157 000 QAnon-related accounts | 21 July 2020 | 7000 banned permanently, 150 000 limited | Engaged in harassment and brigading of other users and misinformation.[360] | ||
| Talib Kweli | Rapper | 23 July 2020 | Permanent | Harassment.[361] | 1,047,345[362] |
| 16 pro-Jair Bolsonaro accounts | 24 July 2020 | Removed on order of the Supreme Federal Court of Brazil for allegedly promoting fake news including the accounts of Roberto Jefferson, Luciano Hang, Sara Winter, and others.[363] | |||
| Wiley (@WileyCEO) | Musician | 25 July 2020 | Antisemitic comments.[364] | 498,576[365] | |
| Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) | American businessman and eldest son of U.S. President Donald Trump | 28 July 2020 | Temporary | Blocked for 12 hours for spreading the debunked claim that Hydroxychloroquine can prevent COVID-19.[366] | |
| David Duke (@DrDavidDuke) | White supremacist and former KKK Grand Wizard | 30 July 2020 | Permanent | Temporarily suspended in August 2017 for association with the Unite the Right rally.[367] Permanently suspended in July 2020 for hateful content.[368][369] | 53,499[370] |
| Gemma O'Doherty (@gemmaod1) | Irish far-right activist and conspiracy theorist | 31 July 2020 | Repeated violations of Twitter rules on hateful conduct and abusive behaviour.[371] | 58,937[372] | |
| Bill Mitchell (@mitchellvii) | Conservative pundit | 14 August 2020 | Using an account to evade the suspension of another account.[373] | 590,126[374] | |
| Guy Verhoftwat (@guyverhoftwat) | Political satire accounts | 17 August 2020 | Violating Twitter's manipulation and spam policy.[375] | 15,715[376] | |
| Jarvis DuPont (@JarvisDuPont) | 128,307[377] | ||||
| Journalist Excellence Worldwide (@journalistew) | 13,187[378] | ||||
| Liberal Larry (@larrydaliberal) | 31,123[379] | ||||
| Sir Lefty Farr-Wright (@supportourlefty) | 24,602[380] | ||||
| Tolerance Police (@diversitypatrol) | |||||
| NPC Daily | Temporary | ||||
| The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) | |||||
| Titania McGrath (@TitaniaMcGrath) | |||||
| 3000 Chinese accounts | 26 August 2020 | Permanent | Part of a Chinese botnet known as "Dracula".[381] | ||
| Unity 2020 (@ArticlesofUnity) | American political movement | 27 August 2020 | Considered "potentially harmful".[382][383] | 25,142[384] | |
| AlwaysActions (@AlwaysActions) | Conservative account | 10 September 2020 | Violating Twitter's manipulation and spam policy after repeatedly sharing xenophobic, anti-Muslim, and hyper-partisan disinformation; U.S. President Donald Trump promoted several of the account's tweets.[385] | 56,266[386] | |
| David Vance (@DVATW) | Right-wing blogger | Permanent; later reinstated | Hateful content for repeated accusations of racism including harassing footballer Marcus Rashford.[387][388] | 172,039[389] | |
| Li-Meng Yan (@LiMengYAN119) | Chinese virologist | 15 September 2020 | Permanent (original account) | Li-Meng Yan's first account permanently suspended for linking to an upload of an unpublished pre-print paper claiming SARS-CoV-2 was made in a laboratory; she later created a new account (@DrLiMengYAN1).[390][391][392] | 59,135[393] |
| Kanye West (@kanyewest) | American musician and U.S. presidential candidate | 16 September 2020 | Temporary | Publishing the phone number of Forbes magazine editor Randall Lane.[394] | |
| About Hungary (@abouthungary) | Official account of the Government of Hungary | 30 September 2020 | Unknown.[395] | ||
| Remix News (@RMXnews) | Hungarian government-supported media publication | Permanent | |||
| Numerous suspicious accounts claiming to be Black supporters of Donald Trump | 13 October 2020 | Violating Twitter's rules on spam and platform manipulation.[396] | |||
| New York Post (@nypost) | Tabloid newspaper | 15 October 2020 | Temporary | Account locked for tweeting articles alleging corruption and attempted collusion between Burisma and Joe Biden.[397][398][399] | |
| Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) | Founder of Turning Point USA | 17 October 2020 | Spreading misleading information about mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania.[400] | ||
| Gayathri Raguram (@gayathriraguram) | Indian politician, choreographer, and actress | 26 October 2020 | Permanent | Violating Twitter's rules after posting a series of tweets relating to the controversy over VCK leader Thol. Thirumavalavan's statement on Manusmriti.[401] | 369,597[402] |
| Ira Madison III (@ira) | Writer and podcaster | 2 November 2020 | Impersonating Beto O'Rourke.[403] | 227,106[404] | |
| DeAnna Lorraine (@DeAnna4Congress) | Former Republican candidate for the US House of Representatives | 3 November 2020 | Permanent; later reinstated | Repeated violations of the Twitter rules; tweeting that "immigrants would enter the US and commit violence if Trump is not elected".[405] | 393,562[406] |
| Numerous accounts claiming to be independent journalists | Violating Twitter's rules on spam and platform manipulation.[405] | ||||
| The Chaser (@chaser) | Australian comedy group and satirical news publication | Temporary | Impersonating Donald Trump and tweeting "Don't vote for me, I'm a massive idiot".[407] The account was restored the next day but lost its verification. | ||
| David Icke (@davidicke) | English conspiracy theorist | 4 November 2020 | Permanent; later reinstated | Violating Twitter's rules on COVID-19 misinformation.[408] | 383,021[409] |
| Steve Bannon (@WarRoomPandemic) | Former White House Chief Strategist to Donald Trump | 5 November 2020 | Permanent | Banned after he called for Anthony Fauci and Christopher A. Wray to be beheaded on his podcast.[410] | 175,127[411] |
| Mohsen Rezaee (@ir_rezaee) | Iranian politician and secretary of the Expediency Discernment Council | 9 November 2020 | Violating Twitter's rules against abusive behavior.[412] | 141,117[413] | |
| Bijan Namdar Zangeneh | Iranian Minister of Petroleum | 15 November 2020 | Banned because it violated the website's rules against impersonation.[414] | ||
| True Indology (@tiinexile) | Indian right-wing historian account | 17 November 2020 | Banned after online banter with senior IPS officer.[415] | 237,790[416] | |
| @TheBettyTrump | Elizabeth Trump Grau imposter | 20 November 2020 | Impersonating Donald Trump's older sister Elizabeth Trump Grau.[417][418] | ||
| Trapt (@TRAPTOFFICIAL) | American rock band | 8 December 2020 | The official Trapt Twitter account and Chris Taylor Brown's personal account were both suspended after Brown, who operated both accounts, wrote a series of tweets defending statutory rape.[419] | 26,838[420] | |
| Chris Taylor Brown (@RealCTBTrapt) | Trapt lead vocalist | ||||
| @real_bobcostas | Bob Costas imposter | 9 December 2020 | Impersonating Bob Costas after a complaint to Twitter from Costas's son Keith Michael Kirby Costas.[421] | ||
2021
| Individual/account | Description | Date | Duration | Reason for suspension | Additional information | Followers at the time of suspension |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dan Bongino (@dbongino) | American conservative political commentator | 7 January 2021 | Temporary | Violating Twitter's Civic Integrity policy.[422] | 2,400,216[423] | |
| L. Lin Wood (@LLinWood) | American pro-Trump lawyer and conspiracy theorist | Permanent | Violating Twitter's rules against inciting violence and ban evasion using a second account (@FightBackLaw), which was also suspended.[424] | 1,199,054[425] | ||
| Jake Angeli (@USAwolfpack) | American QAnon conspiracy theorist and far-right activist | Related to being a figurehead in the January 6 US Capitol attack.[426] | 5,785[427] | |||
| Donald Trump (@realDonaldTrump) | President of the United States | 8 January 2021 | Permanent; later reinstated | On 7 January, Trump's personal account (@realDonaldTrump) was suspended for 12 hours after Twitter removed three of his tweets.[428] This was elevated to a permanent suspension due to repeated and severe violations of Twitter's Civic Integrity policy, following his supporters' storming of the U.S. Capitol.[429][430][431] After his suspension, Trump used the official account of the U.S. President (@POTUS); Twitter deleted Trump's new tweets written after the suspension and threatened to suspend accounts used by him for "ban evasion".[432][433] Twitter also suspended the Trump presidential campaign's account (@TeamTrump) after it reposted the deleted tweets from @POTUS.[434][435][436] Both accounts were later reinstated on November 19, 2022.[437] | 88,783,411[438] | |
| Team Trump (@TeamTrump) | Donald Trump presidential campaign | 2,428,411[439] | ||||
| Ben Garrison (@GrrrGraphics) | American alt-right political cartoonist | Permanent (original account) | Posting a cartoon endorsing the storming of the US Capitol.[440] Part of a larger banwave on accounts expressing similar sentiments.[441] He later created a new account (@CartoonsBen) which is also suspended. | 239,087[442] | ||
| Gary Coby (@GaryCoby) | Digital Director for Trump's 2020 presidential campaign | Permanent; later reinstated | Attempted to help President Trump evade Twitter bans by using his account. Coby changed the name and picture of his account to those of President Trump.[443] | 24,773[444] | ||
| Michael Flynn (@GenFlynn) | Retired US Army lieutenant general and former National Security Advisor under Donald Trump | Permanent; later reinstated[445] | Violating Twitter's policy on "Coordinated Harmful Activity" in relation to sharing QAnon content.[446][447][448] | 1,234,342[449] | ||
| Jim Watkins (@isitwetyet) | Operators of 8kun | Permanent | 24,255[450] | |||
| Ron Watkins (@CodeMonkeyZ) | Permanent; later reinstated | 586,746[451] | ||||
| Patrick Byrne (@PatrickByrne) | CEO Of Overstock.com, Pro Trump activist | 200,000 | ||||
| Sidney Powell (@SidneyPowell1) | American pro-Trump lawyer and conspiracy theorist | Permanent | 1,266,945[452] | |||
| Sci-Hub (@sci_hub) | Kazakhstani shadow library of research papers | Violating Twitter's counterfeiting policy.[453] | 184,950[454] | |||
| Ali Alexander (@ali) | American far-right activist and organizer of Stop the Steal campaign | 10 January 2021 | [455] Was re-banned on January 25, 2023, after his account was re-instated earlier in the month.[456] | 197,410[457] | ||
| Lou Barletta (@LouBarletta_PA) | Former US Representative for Pennsylvania's 11th congressional district | Permanent (personal account); later reinstated | Suspended "in error for perceived violations of [Twitter's] impersonation policy". The account was restored the following day.[458][459] | |||
| Chris Goss (@mastersreality) | Lead singer of Masters of Reality | 11 January 2021 | Permanent | Unknown.[citation needed] | 5,058[460] | |
| Approximately 70 000 QAnon-related accounts | [461] | |||||
| Marjorie Taylor Greene (@mtgreenee) | US Congresswoman representing Georgia's 14th congressional district | 17 January 2021 | Temporary | Suspended for 12 hours for spreading misinformation about voter fraud in the 2020 US election.[462] | ||
| Chinese Embassy in US (@ChineseEmbinUS) | Chinese government agency | 20 January 2021 | The embassy's Twitter account was suspended after it issued a Tweet defending the Chinese government's actions in Xinjiang province. The Chinese government has carried out policies of mass internment, intensive surveillance, "re-education", destruction of cultural and religious sites, forced labor, forced abortion, and forced sterilization, as part of a campaign of cultural genocide targeting Uyghurs. The embassy's Tweet—claiming that Uyghur women had been "emancipated" from extremism and were "no longer baby-making machines"—was deleted, and the account was suspended for violating Twitter's policy prohibiting "dehumanization of a group of people based on their religion, caste, age, disability, serious disease, national origin, race, or ethnicity".[463][464] | |||
| Kangana Ranaut (@KanganaTeam) | Indian actress and supporter of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Narendra Modi | For a now-deleted tweet on the makers of Tandav, in which the actress had said that it was "time to take their heads off". She had posted the comment in response to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting asking the makers of the series to explain allegations of insult to Hindu gods in some scenes.[465] | ||||
| Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (@Tokyo2020jp) | Official Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Organization | 24 January 2021 | The account's owner's date of birth was mistakenly set to 24 January 2014, the date the committee was created, causing the account to be automatically banned for not meeting the minimum age requirement of Twitter.[466][467] | |||
| Mike Lindell (@realMikeLindell) | CEO of My Pillow, conservative political activist, and conspiracy theorist | 25 January 2021 | Permanent; later reinstated | Repeated violations of Twitter's Civic Integrity policy. Lindell used his Twitter account to promote disinformation about the 2020 presidential election.[468] The account was later reinstated on 16 December 2022. | 497,694[469] | |
| Yevgeny Prigozhin (@evgenyprigozhin) | Russian businessman | 27 January 2021 | Permanent | Violating Twitter's guidelines.[470] | ||
| My Pillow (@mypillowusa) | American pillow manufacturing company | 1 February 2021 | Permanent; later reinstated | Violating Twitter's policy on ban evasion. After his personal account was banned for promoting disinformation, My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell used the company's Twitter account to post: "Jack Dorsey is trying to cancel me (Mike Lindell) out!"[471] | 45,815[472] | |
| Shiva Ayyadurai (@va_shiva) | Indian-American engineer, politician, and conspiracy theorist | 2 February 2021 | Violating Twitter's Civic Integrity policy by promoting disinformation about US elections and the COVID-19 pandemic.[473] The account was later reinstated on 16 December 2022. | 302,686[474] | ||
| Jim Hoft (@gatewaypundit) | Founder and editor of far-right fake news website The Gateway Pundit | 6 February 2021 | Repeated violations of Twitter's Civic Integrity policy by promoting disinformation about the 2020 U.S. presidential election.[475] The account was later reinstated on 16 December 2022. | 375,699[476] | ||
| Wayne Allyn Root (@realwayneroot) | American far-right radio host, author, activist, conservative political commentator, and conspiracy theorist | Violating Twitter's Civic Integrity policy.[477] The account was later reinstated on 16 December 2022. | 121,650[478] | |||
| Project Veritas (@Project_Veritas) | American far-right activist group | 11 February 2021 | Repeated violations of Twitter's policy against publishing private information.[479] The account was later reinstated on 20 November 2022. | 734,150[480] | ||
| Music Box Theatre (@musicboxtheatre) | Movie theater in Chicago, Illinois | 17 February 2021 | Temporary | Violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by using the song "Take My Breath Away" in a trailer of coming attractions.[481] | ||
| Roughly two dozen Russia- and Iran-affiliated troll accounts | 25 February 2021 | Permanent | Attempting to "manipulate the platform" by amplifying messages from pro-independence critics of SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon.[482] | |||
| The Exposé (@DailyExposeUK) | British conspiracist website | March 2021 | Following the suspension of its main account, the website created several alt accounts to get around its ban.[483] | |||
| Many Twitter accounts who posted the word "Memphis" | 14 March 2021 | Temporary | Technical issues, possibly caused by an internal misconfiguration intended to prevent sharing of a private address.[484] | |||
| Marjorie Taylor Greene (@mtgreenee) | US Congresswoman representing Georgia's 14th congressional district | 19 March 2021 | Suspended due to an automated mechanism error; reversed the same day.[485] | |||
| Lee Hurst (@LeeHurstComic) | English comedian | 20 March 2021 | Making a sexual joke about teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg.[486] | |||
| Fake accounts posing as Amazon fulfillment center workers to spread pro-Amazon and anti-union messages | 30 March 2021 | Permanent | Violating Twitter's impersonation policy.[487][488] | |||
| Jason Whitlock (@WhitlockJason) | American sports journalist | 9 April 2021 | Temporary | Violating Twitter's policy against posting private information. Whitlock had posted an article about co-founder of Black Lives Matter Patrisse Cullors' purchase of a $1.4 million home.[489] | ||
| James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) | American right-wing political activist and founder of Project Veritas | 15 April 2021 | Permanent; later reinstated | Twitter stated that O'Keefe operated fake accounts in violation of Twitter's rules against platform manipulation and spam. O'Keefe responded to the ban by threatening to sue Twitter for defamation.[490] The account was later reinstated on 16 December 2022. | 924,855[491] | |
| Ken Glueck (@KenGlueck) | Executive vice president at Oracle | 28 April 2021 | Temporary | Violating Twitter's policy against posting private information. Writer Mara Hvistendahl published an article in The Intercept alleging that Oracle was marketing its data analytics software to police and security contractors in China. Glueck issued a rebuttal to the piece on Oracle's website, asking readers with "any information about Mara or her reporting" to contact him at his personal ProtonMail email address. Hvistendahl tweeted a screenshot of this sentence in Glueck's rebuttal, including Glueck's email address. Glueck then tweeted Hvistendahl's professional email address and Signal phone number, which were published in her original article, as a way to "return the favor". Twitter suspended Glueck's account for 12 hours; Hvistendahl's account was not suspended. Glueck's request for information on Hvistendahl was later removed from his rebuttal.[492][493] | ||
| Kangana Ranaut (@KanganaTeam) | Indian actress and supporter of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Narendra Modi | 4 May 2021 | Permanent | For inciting hate and violence with a tweet demanding President's rule in West Bengal in response to alleged post-poll violence two days after election results were announced. Ranaut wrote, "This is horrible… we need super gundai to kill gundai… she is like an unleashed monster, to tame her Modi ji please show your Virat roop from early 2000's…#PresidentRuleInBengal [sic]".[494][495][496] | 3,072,188[497] | |
| The Desk of Donald J. Trump (@DJTDesk) | Account reposting content from Donald Trump's website | 5 May 2021 | Violating Twitter's policy on ban evasion. The @DJTDesk account was sharing short, Twitter-like blog posts from the website of former U.S. president Donald Trump, whose Twitter account @realDonaldTrump had previously been suspended. In a statement, Twitter said that it would "take enforcement action on accounts whose apparent intent is to replace or promote content affiliated with a suspended account".[498] Trump spokesman Jason Miller denied that the account was set up by Trump or any of his affiliates.[499] | 1,845[500] | ||
| Karoline Leavitt (@kc_leavitt) | Communications director for US Rep. Elise Stefanik | 6 May 2021 | Temporary | Suspended "in error", according to Twitter, and restored the same day.[501] | ||
| Nine accounts linked to Irish journalist and columnist Eoghan Harris, including @barbarapym2 | Permanent | Violating Twitter's policy against platform manipulation. Harris had been operating an anonymous sock puppet account on Twitter under the name "Barbara J Pym". The account regularly posted incendiary tweets about Irish politics and had sent harassing messages to journalist Aoife Moore. Eight additional Twitter accounts with suspected links to the @barbarapym2 account were also later suspended. The Sunday Independent newspaper fired Harris from his job as a columnist; editor Alan English claimed that many of the tweets were "far beyond what I would describe as fair and reasonable comment". Harris claimed that he was only one of several people operating the @barbarapym2 account, and denied operating the other suspended accounts.[502][503][504] | 1,785[505] | |||
| Official account of the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir (@OfficeOfLGJandK) | 10 May 2021 | Temporary | Reportedly due to a "technical error"; restored the same day.[506] | |||
| Francisco José Contreras (@fjconpe) | Deputy of Spain's Vox political party | 11 May 2021 | Violating Twitter's hateful conduct policy, resulting in a 12-hour suspension. In response to an article about a trans man giving birth, Contreras had posted: "A man cannot get pregnant. A man has no womb or eggs".[507] | |||
| Muhammadu Buhari (@MBuhari) | President of Nigeria | 2 June 2021 | Suspended for 12 hours for posting a tweet invoking the violence of the Nigerian Civil War in his threats to the separatist group Indigenous People of Biafra, which users claimed was inciting violence against the Igbo people. The tweet itself was also deleted. The text was: "Many of those misbehaving today are too young to be aware of the destruction and loss of lives that occurred during the Biafra War. Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand".[508][509] | |||
| Naomi Wolf (@naomirwolf) | American feminist writer and anti-vaccination conspiracy theorist | 4 June 2021 | Permanent; later reinstated | Spreading misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines.[510][511] The account was later reinstated on 16 December 2022. | 142,417[512] | |
| Rebekah Jones (@GeoRebekah) | American geographer and alleged whistleblower | 7 June 2021 | "Platform manipulation and spam", caused by her repeatedly retweeting a Miami Herald article about her tenure with the Florida Department of Health.[513] The account was later reinstated on 16 December 2022. | 407,633[514] | ||
| The Chaser (@chaser) | Australian comedy group and satirical news publication | 11 June 2021 | Temporary | Suspended for an hour for impersonating Pope Francis, J. K. Rowling, Prime Minister of Australia Scott Morrison and Coca-Cola, after regaining their verification they lost during their previous suspension.[515] | ||
| David Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) | Founder of sports and pop culture blog Barstool Sports | 18 June 2021 | Unknown.[516][517] | |||
| Lee Hurst (@LeeHurstComic) | English comedian | 30 June 2021 | Encouraging the physical assault of England's Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty.[518] | |||
| Anne-Marie Brady (@Anne_MarieBrady) | Chinese politics Professor at the University of Canterbury | 1 July 2021 | Account locked for posting two tweets critical of Xi Jinping. Account later restored on 5 July.[519] | |||
| Nick Fuentes (@NickJFuentes) | American white nationalist and far-right political commentator | 9 July 2021 | Permanent | Temporarily suspended in April 2021.[520] Permanently suspended in July 2021 for "repeated violations" of Twitter rules. The suspension happened the day after the Anti-Defamation League published an article titled "Nicholas J. Fuentes: Five Things to Know".[521] Fuentes' account was re-banned on 25 January 2023 after it had been reinstated the day before.[522] | 139,338 (first suspension)[523] 147,357 (second suspension)[524] | |
| Marjorie Taylor Greene (@mtgreenee) | US Congresswoman representing Georgia's 14th congressional district | 19 July 2021 | Temporary | Suspended for 12 hours for sharing misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines.[525] | ||
| Nation of Islam (@OfficialNOI) | American religious and political organization | 22 July 2021 | Permanent | Spreading misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines.[526] | 62,156[527] | |
| @ArizonaAudit | Accounts calling for pro-Trump "audits" of the 2020 United States presidential election in several states, as well as promoting the Maricopa County audit. | 27 July 2021 | Violating Twitter rules on platform manipulation and spam.[528] | 98,080[529] | ||
| @Audit_PA | ||||||
| @AuditGeorgia | 3,316[530] | |||||
| @AuditMichigan | ||||||
| @AuditNevada | ||||||
| @AuditWarRoom | 45,895[531] | |||||
| @AuditWisconsin | ||||||
| Anjem Choudary (@anjemchoudary_) | British Islamist hate preacher convicted under the United Kingdom's Terrorism Act 2000 | 28 July 2021 | Violating Twitter's rules on violent organizations and individuals. Choudary had been convicted on charges of supporting ISIL in 2016 and had been released from prison in 2018.[532] His account was banned alongside his Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn accounts weeks after restrictions on his ability to use the internet were lifted.[533] | 1,632[534] | ||
| Bronze Age Pervert (@bronzeagemantis) | Alt-right author[535] | 4 August 2021[536] | Permanent; later reinstated | Unknown.[537] The account was later reinstated on 6 December 2022. | 75,564[538] | |
| Allie Beth Stuckey (@conservmillen) | American conservative commentator | 5 August 2021 | Temporary | Suspended for 12 hours for repeatedly calling New Zealand transgender weightlifter Laurel Hubbard a man.[539] | ||
| @CormacMcCrthy | Cormac McCarthy imposter | 9 August 2021 | Permanent | Account created by California Democratic gubernatorial candidate Daniel Watts suspended for impersonating Cormac McCarthy.[540][541][542][543] | 49,993[544] | |
| Aubrey Huff (@aubrey_huff) | Former professional baseball player | 10 August 2021 | Permanent; later reinstated | Repeated violations of COVID-19 misleading information policy.[545] The account was later reinstated on 16 December 2022. | 214,038[546] | |
| Marjorie Taylor Greene (@mtgreenee) | US Congresswoman representing Georgia's 14th congressional district | Temporary | Suspended for one week for sharing misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines.[547] | |||
| @BBCAfghanNews | Fake news accounts | 17 August 2021 | Permanent | Banned for propagating a fake story about a fictitious CNN journalist named "Bernie Gores", who they claimed was killed by the Taliban during the Fall of Kabul. None of the accounts were verified and, except for @CNNAfghan, this was their only tweet.[548] | ||
| @CNNAfghan | ||||||
| @MSNBCAfghan | ||||||
| Jean Messiha (@jeanmessiha) | French politician | 26 August 2021 | Banned for repeatedly violating Twitter's hateful conduct policy.[549] | 164,015[550] | ||
| Alex Berenson (@alexberenson) | Writer | 29 August 2021 | Permanent; later reinstated | Banned for repeatedly violating Twitter's COVID-19 misinformation policy.[551][552] The account was later reinstated on 26 August 2022. | 343,038[553] | |
| Anonymous Germany (@AnonNewsDE) | Decentralised hacking group | 13 September 2021 | Permanent | Banned for 'disseminating hacked material, the policy on private information, and against the policy on platform manipulation and spam', following the hack of neo-Nazi conspiracy theorist Attila Hildmann.[554] | 95,524[555] | |
| Greg Locke (@pastorlocke) | Founder of Global Vision Bible Church | 14 September 2021 | Permanent; later reinstated | Banned for repeatedly violating Twitter's COVID-19 misinformation policy.[556] The account was later reinstated on 16 December 2022. | 113,233[557] | |
| Nicki Minaj (@nickiminaj) | Rapper | 15 September 2021 | Temporary | Minaj claimed to be suspended for spreading misinformation about COVID-19, however, this claim was disputed by Twitter.[558] | ||
| André Ventura (@AndreCVentura) | Portuguese politician and founder of far-right party Chega | 28 September 2021 | Unknown.[559] | |||
| Jim Banks (@RepJimBanks) | American politician serving as U.S. Representative for Indiana's 3rd congressional district | 23 October 2021 | Temporarily suspended for misgendering assistant secretary of health Rachel Levine.[560] | |||
| Emerald Robinson (@Emeraldrobinson) | American journalist, White House Correspondent for Newsmax TV | 10 November 2021 | Permanent; later reinstated | Banned for repeatedly violating Twitter's COVID-19 misinformation policy.[561] The account was later reinstated on 16 December 2022. | 440,789[562] | |
| @TrackerTrial | Account covering the sex trafficking trial of Ghislaine Maxwell | 8 December 2021 | Permanent | Banned for violating Twitter's rules against platform manipulation and spam.[563] | 525,429[564] | |
| Robert W. Malone (@RWMaloneMD) | American virologist and immunologist | 29 December 2021 | Permanent; later reinstated | Banned for repeatedly violating Twitter's COVID-19 misinformation policy.[565] The account was later reinstated on 12 December 2022. | 519,794[566] | |
2022
| Individual/account | Description | Date | Duration | Reason for suspension | Followers at the time of suspension |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marjorie Taylor Greene (@mtgreenee) | Personal account of US Congresswoman representing Georgia's 14th congressional district | 2 January 2022 | Permanent; later reinstated | Permanently suspended after multiple violations of Twitter's COVID-19 misinformation policy throughout 2021. Her official congressional account (@RepMTG) was not suspended.[567] Greene is the first sitting member of Congress to have her personal Twitter account permanently suspended.[568] The account was reinstated 21 November 2022.[569] | 465,739[570] |
| Politics for All (@PoliticsForAlI) | News aggregate account | 4 January 2022 | Permanent | Banned for violating Twitter's rules against platform manipulation and spam.[571] | 457,998[572] |
| Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) | American right-wing political commentator and author | 8 January 2022 | Temporary | Temporarily suspended for making transphobic comments. His account was restored once the offensive Tweets in question were deleted.[573] | |
| Luciano Hang (@lucianohangbr) | Brazilian businessman, co-founder and owner of Havan department stores | 12 January 2022 | Permanent; later reinstated | Suspended due to a court order issued by the Supreme Federal Court in an attempt to combat fake news in Brazil. Hang later stated his account was banned due to sharing a video denouncing the vaccination of children.[574] His account was reinstated 72 hours later. | |
| Ali Khamenei (@KhameneiSite) | One of many official Twitter accounts belonging to the Supreme Leader of Iran | 15 January 2022 | Permanent | Permanently suspended after releasing an animation targeting former US President Donald Trump in revenge for the assassination of Qasem Soleimani in 2020. Several other accounts belonging to Khamenei remain active on the network.[575] | |
| 300 accounts promoting the Philippines' presidential front-runner Bongbong Marcos | 21 January 2022 | Banned for violating the company's policies on platform manipulation and spam.[576] | |||
| @wordlinator | Bot account automatically responding to Tweets regarding Wordle games | 26 January 2022 | Suspended for "violating the Twitter rules and the automation rules around sending unsolicited mentions".[577] | ||
| @DefiantLs | Account highlighting hypocritical and contradictory tweets from public figures | 15 February 2022 | Temporary | Allegedly for circumventing a previous ban. The account's owner denies ever having been banned under any other account. The suspension was lifted the next day.[578] | |
| Numerous Open-source intelligence accounts | 22–23 February 2022 | Suspended or locked out for sharing images and videos showing Russian military movement into eastern Ukraine as part of the 2021–2022 Russo-Ukrainian crisis. Some of the affected accounts allege it is part of a coordinated campaign to remove their content.[579] | |||
| Grace Lavery (@graceelavery) | Associate professor at University of California, Berkeley | 23 February 2022 | Permanent | Suspended for tweeting "I hope the queen dies" after news that Queen Elizabeth II had tested positive for COVID-19.[580] | |
| CNN Ukraine (@CNNUKR) | Fake news account | 25 February 2022 | Sharing fake news about death of journalist in Ukraine.[581] | ||
| Randy Hillier (@randyhillier) | Member of the Ontario Provincial Parliament | 8 March 2022 | Permanent; later reinstated | Banned for repeatedly violating Twitter's COVID-19 misinformation policy.[582] The account was later reinstated on 16 December 2022. | 56,056[583] |
| Samantha Markle (@TheMarkleSammy) | Older paternal half-sister of Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex | 14 March 2022 | Permanent | Violating the rules against ban evasion.[584] | 3,433[585] |
| The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) | News satire website | 21 March 2022 | Temporary | Account locked for hateful conduct after posting an attack on U.S. Health Assistant Secretary Rachel Levine, mocking her placement on USA Today's "Women of the Year" list. The Babylon Bee has refused to delete the Tweet in question. The account was reinstated on 18 November 2022.[586][587] | |
| Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) | Founder of Turning Point USA | 22 March 2022 | Account locked for hateful conduct after posting a Tweet mocking U.S. Health Assistant Secretary Rachel Levine's placement on USA Today's "Women of the Year" list. After initially refusing to delete the Tweet in question, Kirk complied with the request and regained access to his account five weeks after his suspension.[588][589] | ||
| Tucker Carlson (@tuckercarlson) | American television host and conservative political commentator | 23 March 2022 | Account locked for hateful conduct after posting a Tweet mocking U.S. Health Assistant Secretary Rachel Levine's placement on USA Today's "Women of the Year" list. After initially refusing to delete the Tweet in question, Carlson complied with the request and regained access to his account a month later.[590][591] | ||
| Juanita Broaddrick (@atensnut) | Bill Clinton rape accuser | 11 April 2022 | Permanent; later reinstated | Violating the policy on spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID-19.[592] | |
| Pennsylvania House of Representatives Republican Caucus (@PAHouseGOP) | Caucus of the Pennsylvania Legislature | 13 April 2022 | Temporary | Unknown. Suspension was lifted hours later.[593] | |
| Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) | Account mocking liberal posts on TikTok and other social media sites | Temporarily suspended for 12 hours due to "hateful conduct".[594] | |||
| Geert Wilders (@geertwilderspvv) | Dutch far-right politician and leader of the Party for Freedom. | 25 April 2022 | Temporarily suspended for violating Twitter's "hateful conduct" policy after mentioning Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in a Tweet which criticised Islam.[595] | ||
| Roger Stone (@RogerStoneUSA) | American conservative political consultant and lobbyist | 28 April 2022 | Permanent | Permanently suspended for evading an October 2017 Twitter ban.[596] | |
| Mike Lindell (@MikeJLindell) | CEO of MyPillow | 1 May 2022 | Permanently suspended for evading a January 2021 Twitter ban.[597] | 10,250[598] | |
| Donald J Trump's Truth Social Posts (@PresTrumpTS) | Account posting Donald Trump posts from his Truth Social account. | 17 May 2022 | Permanently suspended for violating the ban evasion policy since his role in the 2021 United States Capitol attack.[599] | 11,999[600] | |
| Over 300 suspected bot accounts in Ireland | Permanently suspended for mass-retweeting a Tweet by Irish Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly and violating Twitter's spam policy after the Fianna Fáil and Department of Health requested the company launch an investigation into the accounts.[601] | ||||
| Laurence Fox (@lozzafox) | English actor and conservative political activist. | 26 June 2022 | Temporary | Temporarily suspended for changing his profile picture to a swastika made out of four LGBTQ flags.[602] | |
| At least 80 accounts related to Gurbaksh Chahal's BNN News Network | 28 June 2022 | Permanent | Permanently suspended for manipulating the company's policies on spam and platform manipulation.[603] | ||
| Jordan Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) | Canadian clinical psychologist, YouTube personality and author. | 29 June 2022 | Temporary | Temporarily suspended for misgendering actor Elliot Page. Peterson later stated he refused to delete the Tweet in question.[604] The account was restored in November of the same year after Elon Musk bought the company.[605] | |
| Dave Rubin (@RubinReport) | American conservative political commentator | 5 July 2022 | Rubin claims to have been suspended by the platform for discussing Jordan Peterson's suspension after misgendering actor Elliot Page.[606] | ||
| @RuthSentUs | American pro-abortion rights group | 14 July 2022 | Permanent | Permanently suspended for publishing a map containing the home addresses of six Supreme Court Justices, including Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh.[607] | 6,110[608] |
| Tetsuya Yamagami (@333_hill) | Main defendant in Shinzo Abe's assassination case | 19 July 2022 | Permanently suspended for unspecified violation of Twitter's corporate policies.[609][610] | >45,000[611][a] | |
| @GBNews_UK | Fake news account | 26 July 2022 | Permanently suspended for posting a fake news article claiming that a lorry carrying £20,000 of oysters and champagne to Jacob Rees-Mogg's house was stuck in traffic.[613] | ||
| James A. Lindsay (@ConceptualJames) | American mathematician, author and cultural critic | 5 August 2022 | Permanent; later reinstated | Permanently suspended for violating the platform's "hateful conduct" policy.[614][better source needed] | 315,847[615] |
| Luis Miguel (@LuisMiguelUS) | American political candidate | 19 August 2022 | Permanent | Permanently suspended after a tweet advocating shooting federal law enforcement agents.[616][617] | |
| Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) | Account mocking liberal posts on TikTok and other social media sites | 27 August 2022 | Temporary | Temporarily suspended for violating the platform's "hateful conduct" policy.[618] | |
| @bjorkanism | Accounts operated by Bjorka, purportedly Polish hacker and hacktivist | 11 September 2022 | Permanent | Permanently suspended for violating Twitter's policies regarding distribution of hacked materials.[619] | 4,960[620] |
| @bjorxanism | 12 September 2022 | Permanently suspended for violating Twitter's ban evasion policy.[621][622][623] | 1,774[624] | ||
| @bjorkanesian | 13 September 2022 | ||||
| @bjorkanism19 | 18 September 2022 | 19,647[625] | |||
| Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) | Account mocking liberal posts on TikTok and other social media sites. | 28 September 2022 | Temporary | Temporarily suspended for seven days for violating the platform's 'hateful conduct' policy.[626] | |
| Peter A. McCullough (@P_McCulloughMD) | American Cardiologist and Epidemiologist | 6 October 2022 | Permanent; later reinstated | Unknown. | 512,008[627] |
| Kanye West (@kanyewest) | American rapper | 8 October 2022 | Temporary | Temporarily suspended after posting an antisemitic Tweet, declaring that he was going to go "death con 3" on Jewish people.[628] | |
| Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) | American comedian | 6 November 2022 | Permanent; later reinstated | Permanently suspended for impersonating Elon Musk. Her account was reinstated 13 days later.[629] | 2,089,518[630][631] |
| h3h3Productions (@h3h3productions) | American YouTuber | Permanently suspended for impersonating Elon Musk. The account was reinstated on 21 December.[632] | 2,344,341[633] | ||
| Amy Rose Brown (@arb) | Verified user | Permanent | Impersonating Elon Musk.[634][635] | 50,700 | |
| Chris Kluwe (@chriswarcraft) | American former football player | 171,106[636] | |||
| Jeph Jacques (@jephjacques) | American cartoonist and creator of Questionable Content | 109,248[637] | |||
| Rich Sommer (@richsommer) | American actor | 32,906[638] | |||
| @EliLillyandCo | Account impersonating Eli Lilly and Company | 10 November 2022 | Banned after posting a tweet claiming the company was making insulin free, causing Eli Lilly to lose $15 billion in market capitalization.[639][640] This, alongside similar impersonation incidents, caused Twitter to temporarily suspend its Twitter Blue program.[639] | ||
| Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club (@EFJBGC) | Anti-fascist firearm group | 22 November 2022 | "Hateful conduct" relating to separate tweets that criticized the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and advocated for LGBT firearm ownership following the Colorado Springs nightclub shooting.[641] | 20,745[642] | |
| Chad Loder (@chadloder) | American anti-fascist activist | 23 November 2022 | Unknown.[643] Reportedly banned on order from Elon Musk.[644] | 150,305[645] | |
| CrimethInc (@crimethinc) | Anarchist collective | 25 November 2022 | Banned on request by Andy Ngo to Elon Musk.[646] | 66,769[647] | |
| Edith Frost (@edithfrost) | American singer-songwriter | 30 November 2022 | Impersonating Elon Musk.[648] | 1,690[649] | |
| Kanye West (@kanyewest) | American rapper | 1 December 2022 | Permanent, later reinstated | Posting a picture of a Raëlism symbol resembling a swastika inside a Star of David and praising Adolf Hitler during his appearance on InfoWars earlier in the day.[650] Account was reinstated on June 29, 2023; but the account is not eligible for monetization.[651] | 32,247,880[652] |
| @ElonJet | Account that tracked the private flights of Elon Musk. | 14 December 2022 | Permanent | Rule violations.[653] Musk in a previous tweet said the ElonJet's account was a "direct personal safety risk", and the account's owner said it was shadow banned prior to its suspension.[654] ElonJet was unsuspended for an hour before being banned again.[655] | 527,460[656] |
| @ZuccJet | Account that tracked the private flights of Mark Zuckerberg. | 17,739[657] | |||
| @JohnKerryJet | Account that tracked the private flights of John Kerry. | ||||
| @TrumpJets | Account that tracked the private flights of Donald Trump. | 10,319[658] | |||
| Jack Sweeney (@JxckSweeney) | Personal account of the owner of the above accounts. | 147,391[659] | |||
| Mastodon (@joinmastodon) | Official account of the open source Mastodon social network | 15 December 2022 | Temporary | Unknown.[660] Twitter users were also blocked from sharing links to Mastodon.[661] Reinstated on 17 December.[662] | |
| Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) | Freelance journalist | Initially suspended for seven days for "doxxing"; All accounts had a history of reporting on Musk or his companies.[663] The accounts were reinstated on 17 December.[664] | |||
| Drew Harwell (@drewharwell) | Reporter for The Washington Post | ||||
| Donie O'Sullivan (@donie) | Reporter for CNN | ||||
| Matt Binder (@mattbinder) | Reporter for Mashable | ||||
| Micah Lee (@micahflee) | Reporter for The Intercept | ||||
| Ryan Mac (@rmac18) | Reporter for The New York Times | ||||
| Keith Olbermann (@keitholbermann) | American political commentator | ||||
| Steven L. Herman (@W7VOA) | Chief national correspondent for Voice of America | ||||
| Linette Lopez (@lopezlinette) | Reporter for Business Insider | 16 December 2022 | Unknown. Lopez had previously written investigative reports on Tesla.[665] | ||
| Susan Li (@SusanLiTV) | Journalist for Fox Business | Permanent | Suspended for posting a link to a flight tracking website when discussing how private flights are tracked with public data.[666] | 53,347[667] | |
| Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) | Journalist for The Washington Post | 17 December 2022 | Temporary | Suspended for "prior doxxing". Lorenz claimed she was working on a story with Drew Harwell involving Musk, and got suspended after attempting to reach him for comment without any explanation.[668][669] The following day Twitter denied her appeal and permanently suspended Lorenz. Hours later her account was reinstated.[669] | |
| Paul Graham (@PaulG) | Computer scientist and venture capitalist | 18 December 2022 | Tweeting "This is the last straw. I give up. You can find a link to my new Mastodon profile on my site" after Twitter updated its policies to ban the promotion of other social media sites.[670] | ||
2023
| Individual/account | Description | Date | Duration | Reason for suspension | Followers at the time of suspension |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michael Russell (@feorlean) | President of the Scottish National Party | 17 January 2023 | Temporary | Violation of Twitter rules.[671] | |
| Steve Daines (@SteveDaines) | U.S. Senator from Montana | 7 February 2023 | Violating rule against "graphic violence or adult content in profile images" after he changed his profile picture to an image of him and his wife hunting.[672] | ||
| Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) | Personal account of U.S. Senator from Utah | 1 March 2023 | Incorrectly flagged as impersonation.[673] | ||
| Globe Gazette (@globegazette) | American newspaper based in Mason City, Iowa | 16 March 2023 | Unknown. Account restored a day later following appeals by the newspaper's editor, U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley, and U.S. Representative Ashley Hinson.[674][675] | ~6,000[676] | |
| Sean Plunket (@SeanPlunket) | New Zealand broadcaster | 3 April 2023 | Permanent; later reinstated | Hateful conduct[677][678] | |
| Dell Cameron (@dellcam) | Senior reporter for Wired | 18 April 2023 | Permanent | Banned after interviewing the person who hacked Matt Walsh's social media accounts.[679] | 37,860[680] |
| @BlockTheBlue | Account encouraging users to block accounts subscribed to Twitter Blue | 21 April 2023 | Unknown.[681][682] | ||
| Dominick "Lucre" McGee (@dom_lucre) | Right-wing influencer | 26 July 2023 | Temporary | Violating X's child pornography by posting an image of a victim of Peter Scully. Due to outrage from McGee's followers, his account was later unsuspended.[683][684] | 580,000[685] |
| @JUNlPER | Shitposter | 6 October 2023 | Permanent | Unclear; presumably accusing Elon Musk of pedophilia.[686] | 258,851[687] |
| @UNSTABLEPOSTING | 54,952[688] | ||||
| @junegoblinmode | 8 October 2023 | Ban evasion. | 34,681[689] | ||
| Bob Lonsberry | Conservative talk radio personality | October 2023 | An unspecified violation of platform rules. | 29,400[690] | |
| @EyeonPalestine | Account detailing life in Palestine | 25 October 2023 | Unknown. Happened on the same date that its Instagram account was locked allegedly due to security issues.[691] | ||
| Robert Card @RobertC20041800 | Account used by the perpetrator of the 2023 Lewiston shootings | 26 October 2023 | Unknown.[692] |
2024
| Individual/account | Description | Date | Duration | Reason for suspension | Followers at the time of suspension |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yulia Navalnaya | Russian opposition activist and widow of Alexei Navalny. | 20 February 2024[693] | Briefly | Unknown | 87,451[694] |
| Alejandra Caraballo | Transgender attorney and activist | 19 March 2024[695] | Permanent | Posting the name of a webcomic artist who posts under the pseudonym of StoneToss |
See also
Notes
References
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