Twitter suspensions

Twitter may suspend accounts, temporarily or permanently, from their social networking service. Suspensions of high-profile individuals often attract media attention when they occur. There have been concerted campaigns by Twitter to shut down terrorist organizations and accounts that promote terrorist action, such as those promoting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), particularly in the mid-2010s, and to shut down QAnon conspiracy theorists since 2020. 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 told 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. 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.

In January 2019, Twitter formally provided information on instances where governments have attempted to utilize Twitter for "foreign information operations".

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.

Twitter frequently responds to media enquiries about suspended accounts with "We do not comment on individual accounts, for privacy and security reasons."

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. 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, and between September and December 2014 it suspended at least 1000 accounts promoting ISIL. Twitter said that between mid-2015 and February 2016 it had suspended 125,000 accounts associated with ISIL and related organizations, and by August 2016 had suspended some 360,000 accounts for being associated with terrorism (not all these were ISIL-related).

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, constituted the provision of material support to a terrorist organization. Twitter disputed the claim. 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. The lawsuit was revised in August 2016, providing comparisons to other telecommunications devices.

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. Following public outcry, Twitter restored the accounts the next day without explaining why the accounts had been suspended. 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. 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.

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).

In September 2017, Twitter responded to calls to suspend US President Donald Trump's account, clarifying that they will not do so as they consider his tweets to be "newsworthy".

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.

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." On 18 December, the accounts of several high-profile organizations were suspended.

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." 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. Others criticized the level of organization and the fact that it was only 24 hours.

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.

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.

Several celebrities and public figures lost substantial numbers of followers from their Twitter accounts before and after the closure of these accounts. 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.

US President Donald Trump said that social networks such as Twitter were "totally discriminating" against Republican Party and conservative users. 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. Dorsey's own account lost about 230,000 followers in the purge.

On 27 July 2018, Twitter's stock went down by 20.5% (equivalent to $6 billion), with one market analyst stating that it may go down even lower. The user base declined to 325 million, down from 326 million.

Donald Trump

Further information: Social media use by Donald Trump

On 7 January 2021, Twitter temporarily locked the account of US President Donald Trump after multiple controversies, including his use of the platform to undermine the results of the 2020 presidential election and incite the 2021 United States Capitol attack. On 8 January, Twitter permanently suspended Trump's account, citing his violation of Twitter's Glorification of Violence guidelines. Twitter also suspended or heavily moderated accounts that enabled Trump to circumvent his ban, including the official @POTUS handle. Trump congratulated Nigeria for blocking Twitter, and wrote that he had hosted Zuckerberg for dinner in White House. Twitter was criticized for banning Trump but deleting Ali Khamenei tweets. Twitter also suspended @DJTDesk.

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	Co-ordinating denial-of-service attacks against PayPal, Mastercard and Visa.
Courtney Love (@CourtneyLoveUK)	American musician and actress	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).
Anders Behring Breivik (@AndersBBreivik)	Norwegian far-right terrorist and perpetrator of the 2011 Norway attacks	July 2011	Permanent	After Breivik was arrested, his account was hacked by Anonymous, who said they would delete it. It was later suspended.
Guy Adams (@guyadams)	British journalist for The Independent	30–31 July 2012	Temporary	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.
Anonymous (@YourAnonNews)	Hacktivist collective	19 December 2012	Temporary	Publishing personal information belonging to Westboro Baptist Church lawyer and member Shirley Phelps-Roper.
Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades	Military wing of Hamas	11 January 2014	Permanent	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.
Phil Mason (@thunderf00t)	British chemist, YouTuber and anti-feminist vlogger	September 2014	Temporary	Violating Twitter's abusive behavior policy by sharing content targeting feminist media critic Anita Sarkeesian during the Gamergate controversy.
Godless Spellchecker (@GSpellchecker)	English atheist blogger and podcaster	3–5 January 2015	Temporary	Alleged "targeted abuse or harassment". He had been repeatedly suspended in the past.
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.
Jalibib Al-Jazrawi (@s_2f)	ISIL member	July 2015	Permanent	Making a death threat against Nasser Al Qasabi.
Jared Fogle (@thejaredfogle)	Subway spokesman	August 2015	Permanent	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.
George Zimmerman (@TherealGeorgeZ)	American man known for the killing of Trayvon Martin	3 December 2015	Permanent	Tweeting confidential information about an ex-girlfriend, including revenge porn.

2016

Individual/account	Description	Date	Duration	Reason for suspension	Followers at the time of suspension
İyad el-Baghdadi (@iyad_elbaghdadi)	Arab Spring activist	January 2016	Temporary	Mistaken for ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi by Twitter staff.
Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain)	American conservative writer	February 2016	Permanent	Participating in targeted abuse.
Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades	Military wing of Hamas	March 2016	Permanent	Twitter attempted to remove all official accounts of the terrorist organization, but the organization swiftly opened new accounts. More accounts were suspended in 2019.
Abu Obeida	Al-Qassam Brigades spokesperson	15 April 2016
Azealia Banks (@AZEALIABANKS)	American rapper	May 2016	Permanent	Making racist and homophobic posts towards singer Zayn Malik. Also made at least six other Twitter accounts over succeeding years, with bans in 2018, 2019 and 2020, before she was IP banned from the platform.	535,916
Milo Yiannopoulos (@nero)	British alt-right polemicist and political commentator	July 2016	Permanent	Insulting Leslie Jones coinciding with a racist harassment campaign.
Guccifer 2.0	Hacking group or individual	August 2016	Temporary	Posting information illegally hacked from the Democratic National Committee. Permanently suspended in 2018.
PewDiePie (@pewdiepie)	Swedish YouTuber	September 2016	Temporary	Pretending to be a member of ISIL.
Various "alt-right" accounts		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".
Tila Tequila (@AngelTilaLove)	American social media personality	November 2016	Permanent	Temporarily suspended on 4 March 2016, possibly for racist and violent behavior. 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.	69,354
Jack Dorsey (@jack)	Twitter co-founder and CEO	November 2016	Temporary	After restoring his account, Dorsey tweeted the suspension was due to an "internal mistake".
Richard B. Spencer	American neo-Nazi	November–December 2016	Temporary	Allegedly for using multiple overlapping accounts.
John Rivello (@jew_goldstein)	American man	December 2016	Permanent	Sending an epileptogenic GIF to journalist with epilepsy Kurt Eichenwald.

2017

Individual/account	Description	Date	Duration	Reason for suspension	Followers at the time of suspension
Martin Shkreli (@martinshkreli)	American hedge fund manager	January 2017	Permanent	Suspended for sexual harassment of journalist Lauren Duca.	191,968
Craig R. Brittain (@SenatorBrittain)	Republican US Senate candidate in Arizona, former operator of "revenge porn" website	February 2017	Permanent	Suspended after suggesting that the survivors of the Parkland, Florida Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, had been paid by gun control groups. Brittain sued Twitter for banning his accounts. The suit was dismissed as frivolous.	107,201
Victoria Fierce	Developer	February 2017	Temporary	Swearing at US Vice President Mike Pence.
Mocha Uson	Filipina entertainer and Rodrigo Duterte supporter	March 2017	Temporary	Unknown.
Abhijeet Bhattacharya	Indian singer	May 2017	Temporary	Harassing women including activist Shehla Rashid.
Al Jazeera Arabic	Arabic-language news broadcaster	June 2017	Temporary	Unknown.
Daniel Sieradski (@selfagency)	American writer and activist	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.	12,142
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.	368,068
Popehat	American law blog	August 2017	Temporary	Posting personal information in screen shots of threats received.
Joseph Cox	Journalist for The Daily Beast	August 2017	Temporary	Targeted by bots after writing story about suspicious activity by pro-Kremlin bots.
@nemuismywife	Japanese man	August 2017	Permanent (original account)	Account permanently suspended for making a death threat towards a dead mosquito. The man started a new account.
Alex Boivin	Twitter user	August 2017	Temporary	Suspended for sexual harassment of the cereal mascot Tony the Tiger.
Elizabeth Johnston	Christian blogger	August 2017	Temporary	Criticizing article of Teen Vogue which promoted anal sex amongst teenagers.
@themoodforluv	American woman	September 2017	Permanent	Harassment of singer Taylor Swift.	55,499
Kamaal Rashid Khan	Indian actor and film critic	October 2017	Permanent (original account)	After the ban, Khan announced his intention to take legal action against Twitter; he later created a new account.
Rose McGowan	American actress and activist	October 2017	Temporary	Account temporarily suspended for posting a private phone number.
Roger Stone (@RogerJStoneJr)	American conservative political consultant and lobbyist	October 2017	Permanent	Banned for harassment of CNN journalists. Stone later threatened legal action against Twitter.	289,273
Donald Trump (@realDonaldTrump)	President of the United States	November 2017	Temporary	Account briefly deactivated by a rogue Twitter employee on their last workday.
"Jenna Abrams" (@Jenn_Abrams)	Alt-right blogger	November 2017	Permanent	Unmasked as a fictitious person operated by a Russian troll factory.
Robert Delaware	American man	November 2017	Temporary	Mistaken for a Russian troll account.
2,752 Russian troll accounts		November 2017	Permanent	Twitter's internal investigation linked the accounts to Russia's Internet Research Agency.
Baked Alaska (@bakedalaska)	Alt-right activist	November 2017	Permanent	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.	193,308
Talib Kweli	Musician	November 2017	Temporary	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.
Pakistan Defence Forum (@defencepk)	Forum for discussing Pakistan's armed forces	November 2017	Permanent	Suspended for posting doctored photo and fake news.	308,351
Wael Abbas (@waelabbas)	Egyptian journalist, blogger, and human rights activist	December 2017	Permanent	Unknown.	350,761
Paul Golding (@GoldingBF) and Jayda Fransen (@JaydaBF)	Leader and deputy leader of fascist group Britain First	18 December 2017	Permanent	Contravention of new rule for against people 'that affiliate with organizations that use or promote violence against civilians to further their causes'. The organization had posted videos with false and misleading captions attributing violence to Muslims, which were re-tweeted by Donald Trump.	55,048 94,700
American Nazi Party (@ANP14)	American Nazis	18 December 2017	Permanent	Affiliation with organizations that use or promote violence against civilians to further their causes.	13,325
Jared Taylor (@jartaylor) and American Renaissance	American white nationalists.	18 December 2017	Permanent.	Affiliation with organizations that use or promote violence against civilians to further their causes.	41,021
Michael Hill (@MickCollins1951) and League of the South
Traditionalist Worker Party
Nordic Resistance Movement (@nordicfrontier)	Nordic white nationalists				2,573
James Allsup (@realJamesAllsup)	Far-right political commentator	December 2017	Permanent.	Unknown.	23,894
Tyler Barriss (@SWAuTistic)	Suspect in deadly 2017 Wichita swatting incident	December 2017	Permanent	Barriss' account was suspended after the Los Angeles police arrested him as the suspected "swatter" who claimed full responsibility for placing a fake 911 call that led a police officer to kill an innocent man in Wichita, Kansas.
fuck every word (@fuckeveryword)	Twitter bot	20 December 2017	Permanent	Tweeting "fuck niggers".	117,555

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.
Golden Dawn	Greek ultranationalist party	5 January 2018	Permanent	Broadening of hateful conduct policy on encompass incitement to violence.
Paul Nehlen (@pnehlen)	Congressional candidate challenging Speaker Paul Ryan in Republican primary	13 February 2018	Permanent	Banned after posting racist tweet targeting Meghan Markle.	90,176
Tommy Robinson (@TRobinsonNewEra)	British nationalist	28 March 2018	Permanent	Hateful conduct.	413,334
Owen Benjamin (@OwenBenjamin)	American comedian	5 April 2018	Permanent	Offensive tweets directed at David Hogg.	122,634
Sabo (@UnsavoryAgents)	American street artist	13 April 2018	Permanent	Unknown.	32,264
Mike Enoch (@mikeenochsback)	White nationalist	16 April 2018	Permanent	Hateful conduct.	17,567
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."
Bkub Okawa (@bkub_comic)	Creator of Pop Team Epic	8 June 2018	Temporary	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.
Masao Shiro (@mr_beck36)	Mangaka	8 June 2018	Permanent	Using a Korean anti-Japanese slur while suggesting an anime adaptation of his manga Taekwondoer Park.	7,535
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.
@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.	899
"Darren Mills"	Russian-linked account	4 July 2018	Permanent	Unmasked as a fictitious person operated by a Russian troll factory.
70 million automated, troll, and fake accounts		6 July 2018	Permanent	Part of a crackdown on malicious activity.
DCLeaks (@dcleaks_) Guccifer 2.0 (@GUCCIFER_2)	Russian-linked accounts	14 July 2018	Permanent	Connected to a network of accounts previously suspended for operating in violation of Twitter's rules.	42,548
Candace Owens	American conservative activist	5 August 2018	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.
Peter van Buren (@WeMeantWell)	Former United States Foreign Service employee and writer	5 August 2018	Permanent	Banned for harassing Jonathan M. Katz in posts.	7,690
Blair Cottrell	Australian far-right activist and former leader of the United Patriots Front	7 August 2018	Temporary	Joking about raping Sky News Australia presenter Laura Jayes
Gavin McInnes (@Gavin_McInnes) and the Proud Boys (@ProudBoysUSA)	North American neo-fascist organization and its founder	11 August 2018	Permanent	Violating policy on "violent extremist groups".	266,640 36,869
Talbert W. Swan II	American prelate of the Church of God in Christ	22 August 2018	Permanent; later reinstated	Hateful conduct. 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.
Alex Jones (@RealAlexJones) and InfoWars (@infowars)	American conspiracy website and its founder	6 September 2018	Permanent	First suspended for a week on 14 August for violating policy on "inciting violence" and later banned on 6 September for violating policy on "abusive behaviour".	898,610 430,803
Kris Paronto	Former US Army Ranger	10 September 2018	Temporary	Using the word retard and the hashtags #YouAreAnIdiot and #NeverGoFullRetard.
James Woods	American actor	20 September 2018	Temporary	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. He was allowed to return in October 2018.
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". Lucas now uses a new account.
@CongressEdits	Twitter bot	3 October 2018	Permanent	Automatically rebroadcasting Wikipedia edits that doxed members of Congress.	71,002
Dozens of Occupy movement activists		11 October 2018	Permanent	No explanation from Twitter.
@InfowarsArmy @InfowarsCrew @InfowarsInsider @InfowarsMag @InfowarsPapers @InfowarsReports @InfowarsShop @Infowars_EU @PrisonPlanetTV @RealInfoStore @RealNewsX2 @TheNewsWars @WarRoomMemes @WarRoomShow and 4 other accounts	Accounts affiliated with Alex Jones and InfoWars	22 October 2018	Permanent	Permanently banned for ties with Alex Jones and InfoWars after "numerous violations and warnings".	3,312 7,401 27,238 2,627 221,373 4,672 18,222 3,560 4,637 26,930
@hardrock2016 @hardrockintlet	Accounts used by Cesar Sayoc	26 October 2018	Permanent	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.	89
Smash Racism D.C. (@SmashRacismDC)	Antifa group from Washington, D.C.	7 November 2018	Permanent	Posting the home addresses of Tucker Carlson along with other family members following a protest outside Carlson's home.	9,701
Meghan Murphy (@MeghanEMurphy)	Canadian journalist	15 November 2018	Permanent	Banned for "hateful conduct" following a heated exchange which involved misgendering a transgender woman.	24,004
Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer)	American political activist, conspiracy theorist and Internet personality	22 November 2018	Permanent	Hateful conduct, suspended for a tweet attacking Ilhan Omar by accusing her of being "pro-Sharia" and "pro-FGM".	264,811
Jesse Kelly	Conservative talk radio host and former Republican congressional candidate	25 November 2018	Temporary	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.
@putinRF_eng	Impostor	26 November 2018	Permanent	Impersonating Russian president Vladimir Putin after a complaint to Twitter from Russian officials.	1,007,789
Amos Yee (@TheAmosYee)	Singaporean blogger	10 December 2018	Permanent	Permanently banned for supporting pedophilia.	645
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.

2019

Individual/account	Description	Date	Duration	Reason for suspension	Followers at the time of suspension
Stephanie Sargnagel	Austrian author and artist	January 2019	Permanent; later reinstated	Suspended for posting tweet that translates to: 'Austria, you stupid son of a bitch, I am going to kill you'.
Jacob Wohl (@JacobAWohl)	American conspiracy theorist, fraudster and hoaxer	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.	186,330
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.
Brenton Tarrant (@BrentonTarrant)	Perpetrator of the Christchurch mosque shootings	15 March 2019	Permanent	Posting pictures of the guns he later used in the attacks.	6
@TRobinsonMEP and @CarlUKIP	UKIP accounts of Tommy Robinson and Carl Benjamin	26 April 2019	Permanent	Violating Twitter's terms of service.	4,814 11,905
Correo del Orinoco Diario VEA	Pro-Maduro Venezuelan newspapers	1 May 2019	Unknown	Unspecified; occurred during the 2019 Venezuela uprising.
David Horowitz	Conservative activist and author	7 May 2019	Temporary	Unknown.
Min Aung Hlaing (@SGMinAungHlaing)	Commander-in-Chief of Tatmadaw	16 May 2019	Permanent	Spreading propaganda against Rohingya people.
Nebojša Krstić (@Krle22)	Serbian pundit aligned with the Serbian Progressive Party	17 May 2019	Permanent	Harassment of Vreme journalist Jovana Gligorijević.	24,046
Chiitan (@ogecebel)	Mascot of the town of Susaki, Japan	17 May 2019	Permanent (original account)	Unknown.	1,109,688
Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) and Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein)	Resistance Twitter activists	23 May 2019	Permanent	Operating fake accounts.	925,802 698,039
Eoin Lenihan (@EoinLenihan)	Researcher and educator	29 May 2019	Permanent	Banned from Twitter for abusing multiple accounts.	6,524
@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."
Luke Taylor (@luketaylorjail)	Internet troll	8 July 2019	Permanent	Sustained harassment of the Planters snack food mascot, Mr. Peanut.
Louis Farrakhan	Leader of The Nation of Islam	9 July 2019	Temporary	Banned for using "language that dehumanizes others on the basis of religion".
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.
Patrick Wood Crusius (@PatrickCrusius) and Connor Stephen Betts (@iamthespookster)	Perpetrators of the 2019 El Paso shooting and the 2019 Dayton shooting	4 August 2019	Permanent		381
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.
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.
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
Raúl Castro (@RaulCastroR) Mariela Castro Mesa Redonda (@mesaredondacuba) Granma Digital (@Granma_Digital) Radio Rebelde (@radiorebeldecu)	Cuban government-affiliated accounts	12 September 2019	Permanent	Unspecified breach of rules.	295,350 65,971 228,548 32,086
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.
DotDev.ae	Operator of bot accounts in the United Arab Emirates	20 September 2019	Permanent	Spreading information about Qatar and the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen.
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.	1,301,374
Hamas and Hezbollah–affiliated accounts, including Al-Manar and the Quds News Network		1 November 2019	Permanent	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.
Will Sloan	Canadian film critic and podcaster	21 November 2019	Temporary	Suspended for tweets about the fictional character Baby Yoda.
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".	28,743
Pete Hegseth	Fox News contributor	8 December 2019	Temporary	Banned for posting an anti-American manifesto that was written from 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.
88,000 Saudi-linked accounts		20 December 2019	Permanent	State-backed information operations originating in Saudi Arabia that "violated platform manipulation policies".

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.
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. The account was reinstated in June 2020 with Twitter saying the suspension was in error.	1,025,431
@BabyNutBaby @BabyNutMemes @BabyNutLOL	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.	430 336
70 pro–Michael Bloomberg accounts		21 February 2020	Permanent	Posting identical messages, which Twitter said amounted to spam and "platform manipulation".
Andrew Walz (@WalzRI)	Fake Republican candidate account	28 February 2020	Permanent	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.
Jack Burkman (@Jack_Burkman)	Lobbyist and conspiracy theorist	19 March 2020	Permanent	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.	28,667
Jaboukie Young-White (@giabuchi)	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.
The Federalist	American conservative website	25 March 2020	Temporary	Account locked for promoting an article advocating pox parties for COVID-19, a measure harshly criticized by public health officials.
Metawin Opas-iamkajorn (@Winmetawin)	Thai actor	8 April 2020	Temporary	Unspecified.
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.	163,703
Rob Dew (@DewsNewz)					68,679
Banned.Video (@BANNEDdotVIDEO)					10,886
Chinese embassy in Sri Lanka (@ChinaEmbSL)	Chinese government agency	13 April 2020	Temporary	For using undiplomatic language against social media users while responding to allegations against China.
Alex (@ALX)	Turning Point USA ambassador	17 April 2020	Permanent	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.	80,567
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.
Joey Salads (@JoeySalads)	American conservative media personality	12 May 2020	Permanent	Violating Twitter's manipulation and spam policy.	277,043
@ANTIFA_US	Fake Antifa account	2 June 2020	Permanent	Fake antifa account created by white supremacists; suspended for violating the policy on fake accounts.
170,000 Chinese, 1,000 Russian, and 7,340 Turkish accounts		11 June 2020	Permanent	Found to be linked to propaganda and disinformation supportive of their respective governments.
Katie Hopkins (@KTHopkins)	British columnist and far-right activist	19 June 2020	Permanent	Temporarily on 30 January 2020 possibly due to a tweet she made about rapper Stormzy. Permanently, for "violations of the hateful conduct policy" after she voiced opposition to a school program providing meals for hungry children.	1,100,106
Logan Cook (@carpedonktum)	Pro-Trump meme account	23 June 2020	Permanent	Account suspended for half an hour on 14 October 2019 for sharing an edited scene from Kingsman: The Secret Service depicting Trump murdering journalists, politicians, and news outlets. 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.	273,257
Distributed Denial of Secrets (@DDoSecrets)	Activist group	23 June 2020	Permanent	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".	36,346
Graham Linehan (@Glinner)	Television writer	27 June 2020	Permanent	Repeated acts of platform manipulation and hateful conduct towards transgender individuals. In December 2020, Linehan attempted to circumvent the ban by activating another new account (@scarlysimon), which was subsequently permanently suspended as well.	587,284
Stefan Molyneux (@stefanmolyneux)	Far-right activist and conspiracy theorist	7 July 2020	Permanent	Operating fake accounts.	482,874
Over 50 accounts of white nationalist organizations from several countries		10 July 2020	Permanent	"Violating [Twitter's] policies in relation to violent extremism."
Various users		15 July 2020	Unknown	Posting screenshots of Twitter internal control panels following the 2020 Twitter bitcoin scam.
Approx. 157,000 QAnon-related accounts		21 July 2020	7,000 banned permanently, 150,000 limited	Engaged in harassment and brigading of other users and misinformation.
Talib Kweli	Rapper	23 July 2020	Permanent	Harassment.	1,047,345
16 pro-Jair Bolsonaro accounts		24 July 2020	Permanent	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.
Wiley (@WileyCEO)	Musician	25 July 2020	Permanent	Antisemitic comments.	498,576
Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr)	American businessman and eldest son of US President Donald Trump	28 July 2020	Temporary	Blocked for 12 hours for spreading the debunked claim that Hydroxychloroquine can prevent COVID-19.
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. Permanently suspended in July 2020 for hateful content.	53,499
Gemma O'Doherty (@gemmaod1)	Irish far-right activist and conspiracy theorist	31 July 2020	Permanent	Repeated violations of Twitter rules on hateful conduct and abusive behaviour.
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.
Bill Mitchell (@mitchellvii)	Conservative pundit	14 August 2020	Permanent	Using an account to evade the suspension of another account.	590,126
The Babylon Bee NPC Daily Titania McGrath	Political satire accounts	17 August 2020	Temporary	Violating Twitter's manipulation and spam policy.
Guy Verhoftwat (@guyverhoftwat) Jarvis DuPont (@JarvisDuPont) Journalist Excellence Worldwide (@journalistew) Liberal Larry (@larrydaliberal) Sir Lefty Farr-Wright (@supportourlefty) Tolerance Police (@diversitypatrol)			Permanent		15,715 128,307 13,187 31,123 24,602
3,000 Chinese accounts		26 August 2020	Permanent	Part of a Chinese botnet known as "Dracula".
Unity 2020 (@ArticlesofUnity)	American political movement	27 August 2020	Permanent	Considered "potentially harmful".	25,142
AlwaysActions (@AlwaysActions)	Conservative account	10 September 2020	Permanent	Violating Twitter's manipulation and spam policy after repeatedly sharing xenophobic, anti-Muslim, and hyper-partisan disinformation; US President Donald Trump promoted several of the account's tweets.	56,266
David Vance (@DVATW)	Right-wing blogger	10 September 2020	Permanent	Hateful content for repeated accusations of racism including harassing footballer Marcus Rashford.	172,039
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).	59,135
Kanye West (@kanyewest)	American rapper and US presidential candidate	16 September 2020	Temporary	Publishing the phone number of Forbes magazine editor Randall Lane.
About Hungary (@abouthungary)	Official account of the Government of Hungary	30 September 2020	Temporary	Unknown.
Remix News (@RMXnews)	Hungarian government-supported media publication		Permanent
Numerous suspicious accounts claiming to be Black supporters of Donald Trump		13 October 2020	Permanent	Violating Twitter's rules on spam and platform manipulation.
New York Post	Tabloid newspaper	15 October 2020	Temporary	Official account locked for tweeting articles alleging corruption and attempted collusion between Burisma and Joe Biden.
Charlie Kirk	Founder of Turning Point USA	17 October 2020	Temporary	Spreading misleading information about mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania.
Gayathri Raguram (@gayathriraguram)	Indian 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.	369,597
Ira Madison III (@ira)	Writer and podcaster	2 November 2020	Permanent	Impersonating Beto O'Rourke.	227,106
The Chaser (@chaser)	Australian comedy group and satirical news publication	3 November 2020	Temporary	Impersonating Donald Trump and tweeting "Don't vote for me, I'm a massive idiot". The account was restored the next day but lost its verification.
DeAnna Lorraine (@DeAnna4Congress)	Former Republican candidate for the US House of Representatives	3 November 2020	Permanent	Repeated violations of the Twitter rules; tweeting that "immigrants would enter the US and commit violence if Trump is not elected".	393,562
Numerous accounts claiming to be independent journalists		3 November 2020	Permanent	Violating Twitter's rules on spam and platform manipulation.
David Icke (@davidicke)	English conspiracy theorist	4 November 2020	Permanent	Violating Twitter's rules on COVID-19 misinformation.	383,021
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.	175,127
Mohsen Rezaee (@ir_rezaee)	Iranian politician and secretary of the Expediency Discernment Council	9 November 2020	Permanent	Violating Twitter's rules against abusive behavior.	141,117
Bijan Namdar Zanganeh	Iranian Minister of Petroleum	15 November 2020	Permanent	Banned because it violated the website's rules against impersonation.
True Indology (@tiinexile)	Indian right-wing historian account	17 November 2020	Permanent	Banned after online banter with senior IPS officer.	237,790
@TheBettyTrump	Elizabeth Trump Grau imposter	20 November 2020	Permanent	Impersonating Donald Trump's older sister Elizabeth Trump Grau.
Chris Taylor Brown (@RealCTBTrapt) Trapt (@TRAPTOFFICIAL)	American rock band and its lead singer	8 December 2020	Permanent	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.	26,838
@real_bobcostas	Bob Costas imposter	9 December 2020	Permanent	Impersonating Bob Costas after a complaint to Twitter from Costas's son Keith Michael Kirby Costas.

2021

Individual/account	Description	Date	Duration	Reason for suspension	Followers at the time of suspension
L. Lin Wood (@LLinWood)	American pro-Trump lawyer and conspiracy theorist	7 January 2021	Permanent	Violating Twitter's rules against inciting violence and ban evasion using a second account (@FightBackLaw), which was also suspended.	1,199,054
Dan Bongino (@dbongino)	American conservative political commentator	7 January 2021	Temporary	Violating Twitter's Civic Integrity policy.	2,400,216
Jake Angeli (@USAwolfpack)	American QAnon conspiracy theorist and far-right activist	7 January 2021	Permanent	Related to being a figurehead in the 2021 US Capitol attack.	5,785
Sci-Hub (@sci_hub)	Kazakhstani shadow library of research papers	8 January 2021	Permanent	Violating Twitter's counterfeiting policy.	184,950
Michael Flynn (@GenFlynn)	Retired US Army lieutenant general and former National Security Advisor under Donald Trump	8 January 2021	Permanent	Violating Twitter's policy on "Coordinated Harmful Activity" in relation to sharing QAnon content.	1,234,342
Sidney Powell (@SidneyPowell1)	American pro-Trump lawyer and conspiracy theorist				1,266,945
Jim Watkins (@isitwetyet)	Operators of 8kun				24,255
Ron Watkins (@CodeMonkeyZ)					586,746
Donald Trump (@realDonaldTrump)	President of the United States	8 January 2021	Permanent	On 7 January, Trump's personal account was suspended for 12 hours after Twitter removed three of his tweets. This was elevated to a permanent suspension after repeated and severe violations of Twitter's Civic Integrity policy, following his supporters' storming of the US Capitol. After his suspension, Trump used the official account of the US President (@POTUS); Twitter deleted Trump's new tweets written after the suspension and threatened to suspend accounts used by him for "ban evasion". Twitter also suspended the Trump presidential campaign's account (@TeamTrump) after it reposted the deleted tweets from @POTUS.	88,783,411
Team Trump (@TeamTrump)	Donald Trump presidential campaign				2,428,411
Gary Coby (@GaryCoby)	Digital Director for Trump's 2020 presidential campaign	8 January 2021	Permanent	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.	24,773
Ben Garrison (@GrrrGraphics)	American alt-right political cartoonist	8 January 2021	Permanent (original account)	Posting a cartoon endorsing the storming of the US Capitol. Part of a larger banwave on accounts expressing similar sentiments. He later created a new account (@CartoonsBen).	239,087
Ali Alexander (@ali)	American far-right activist and organizer of Stop the Steal campaign	10 January 2021	Permanent		197,410
Lou Barletta (@LouBarletta_PA)	Former US Representative for Pennsylvania's 11th congressional district	10 January 2021	Permanent (personal account); later reinstated	Suspended "in error for perceived violations of [Twitter's] impersonation policy". The account was restored the following day.
Chris Goss (@mastersreality)	Lead singer of Masters of Reality	11 January 2021	Permanent	Unknown.	5,058
Approximately 70,000 QAnon-related accounts		11 January 2021	Permanent
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.
Kangana Ranaut (@KanganaTeam)	Indian actress and supporter of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Narendra Modi	20 January 2021	Temporary	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.
Chinese Embassy in US (@ChineseEmbinUS)	Chinese government agency	20 January 2021	Temporary	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".
Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games（@Tokyo2020jp）	Official Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Organization	24 January 2021	Temporary	The account set to "7 years old" was considered not to meet the age requirements of Twitter.
Mike Lindell (@realMikeLindell)	CEO of My Pillow	25 January 2021	Permanent	Repeated violations of Twitter's Civic Integrity policy. Lindell used his Twitter account to promote disinformation about the 2020 presidential election.	497,694
Yevgeny Prigozhin (@evgenyprigozhin)	Russian businessman	27 January 2021	Permanent	Violating Twitter's guidelines.
My Pillow (@mypillowusa)	American pillow manufacturing company	1 February 2021	Permanent	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!".	45,815
Shiva Ayyadurai (@va_shiva)	Indian-American engineer, politician, and conspiracy theorist	2 February 2021	Permanent	Violating Twitter's Civic Integrity policy by promoting disinformation about US elections and the COVID-19 pandemic.	302,686
Jim Hoft (@gatewaypundit)	Founder and editor of far-right news website The Gateway Pundit	6 February 2021	Permanent	Repeated violations of Twitter's Civic Integrity policy by promoting disinformation about the 2020 US presidential election.	375,699
Wayne Allyn Root (@realwayneroot)	American far-right radio host, author, activist, conservative political commentator, and conspiracy theorist	6 February 2021	Permanent	Violating Twitter's Civic Integrity policy.	121,650
Project Veritas (@Project_Veritas)	American far-right activist group	11 February 2021	Permanent	Repeated violations of Twitter's policy against publishing private information.	734,150
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.
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.
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.
Marjorie Taylor Greene (@mtgreenee)	US Congresswoman representing Georgia's 14th congressional district	19 March 2021	Temporary	Suspended due to an automated mechanism error; reversed the same day.
Lee Hurst (@LeeHurstComic)	English comedian	20 March 2021	Temporary	Making a sexual joke about teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg.
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.
Nick Fuentes (@NickJFuentes)	American white nationalist and far-right political commentator	1 April 2021	Temporary
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.
James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII)	American right-wing political activist and founder of Project Veritas	15 April 2021	Permanent	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.	924,855
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.
Kangana Ranaut (@KanganaTeam)	Indian actress and supporter of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Narendra Modi	4 May 2021	Permanent	For 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]".	3,072,188
The Desk of Donald J. Trump (@DJTDesk)	Account reposting content from Donald Trump's website	5 May 2021	Permanent	Violating Twitter's policy on ban evasion. The @DJTDesk account was sharing short, Twitter-like blog posts from the website of former US 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". Trump spokesman Jason Miller denied that the account was set up by Trump or any of his affiliates.	1,845
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.
Nine accounts linked to Irish journalist and columnist Eoghan Harris, including @barbarapym2		6 May 2021	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.	1,785
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.
Francisco José Contreras (@fjconpe)	Deputy of Spain's Vox political party	11 May 2021	Temporary	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."
Muhammadu Buhari (@MBuhari)	President of Nigeria	2 June 2021	Temporary	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 Nigerian Civil War. Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand."
Naomi Wolf (@naomirwolf)	American feminist writer and anti-vaccination conspiracy theorist	4 June 2021	Permanent	Spreading misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines.	142,417
Rebekah Jones (@GeoRebekah)	American geographer and whistleblower	7 June 2021	Permanent	"Platform manipulation and spam", caused by her repeatedly retweeting a Miami Herald article about her tenure with the Florida Department of Health.	407,633
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.
David Portnoy (@stoolpresidente)	Founder of sports and pop culture blog Barstool Sports	18 June 2021	Temporary	Unknown.
Lee Hurst (@LeeHurstComic)	English comedian	30 June 2021	Temporary	Encouraging the physical assault of England's Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty.
Anne-Marie Brady (@Anne_MarieBrady)	Chinese politics Professor at the University of Canterbury	1 July 2021	Temporary	Account locked for posting two tweets critical of Xi Jinping. Account later restored on 5 July.
Nick Fuentes (@NickJFuentes)	American white nationalist and far-right political commentator	9 July 2021	Permanent	"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".	139,338
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.
Nation of Islam (@OfficialNOI)	American religious and political organization	22 July 2021	Permanent	Spreading misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines.	62,156
@AuditWarRoom @ArizonaAudit @AuditMichigan @AuditWisconsin @AuditNevada @AuditGeorgia and @Audit_PA	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	Permanent	Violating Twitter rules on platform manipulation and spam.	45,895 98,080 3,316
Anjem Choudary (@anjemchoudary_)	British Islamist hate preacher convicted under the United Kingdom's Terrorism Act 2000.	28 July 2021	Permanent	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. His account was banned alongside his Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn accounts weeks after restrictions on his ability to use the internet were lifted.	1,632
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.
@CormacMcCrthy	Cormac McCarthy imposter	9 August 2021	Permanent	Account created by California Republican candidate Daniel Watts suspended for impersonating Cormac McCarthy after a complaint to Twitter from McCarthy's agent.	49,993
Marjorie Taylor Greene (@mtgreenee)	US Congresswoman representing Georgia's 14th congressional district	10 August 2021	Temporary	Suspended for one week for sharing misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines.
Aubrey Huff (@aubrey_huff)	Former professional baseball player	10 August 2021	Permanent	Repeated violations of COVID-19 misleading information policy.	214,038
@BBCAfghanNews @MSNBCAfghan @CNNAfghan	Fake news accounts	17 August 2021	Permanent	Banned for propagating a fake story about a fictitious CNN journalist named "Bernie Gores", whom 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.
Jean Messiha (@jeanmessiha)	French politician	26 August 2021	Permanent	Banned for repeatedly violating Twitter's hateful conduct policy.	164,015
Alex Berenson (@alexberenson)	Writer	29 August 2021	Permanent	Banned for repeatedly violating Twitter's COVID-19 misinformation policy.	343,038

See also

• Censorship of Twitter
• Deplatforming
• Internet censorship
• Shadow banning
• YouTube suspensions