Twitter suspensions


X, formerly Twitter, may suspend accounts, temporarily or permanently, from their social networking service. Suspensions of high-profile accounts often attract media attention, and X's use of suspensions has been controversial.
𝕏 TwitterSafety

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. 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.
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.

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.
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 " 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.
In September 2017, Twitter responded to calls to suspend U.S. 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.
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. In November 2022, Musk stated that accounts that engage in impersonation without a "clear" parody label would be permanently suspended without warning.
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.
At the end of 2024, Twitter released its first transparency report, stating that 5.3 million accounts were suspended in the first 6 months of 2024,. This did not include spam account suspensions, which totaled 464 million. However, many real users reported being incorrectly flagged and/or suspended for spam because they used a third-party applications to access Twitter or they were never given an explanation.
Around early 2025, many users began reporting being "silenced" and suspended from X (formerly Twitter), without any possibility of reinstatement. The standard suspension appeal form often led to no response — not even an automated acknowledgement — even after several months of daily submissions. According to reports compiled in Reddit's X Megathread, the issue seems to occur frequently after subscribing to the Premium service. Some users argue this practice may violate consumer protection laws.
The Better Business Bureau (BBB) has reportedly received multiple complaints regarding these account suspensions, but attempts to contact X have remained unanswered. The situation has raised concerns about potential violations of the Digital Services Act in the European Union, particularly regarding platform transparency and user rights.

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.
U.S. 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%. The user base declined to 325 million, down from 326 million.

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. 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 the "From the Desk of Donald J. Trump" account, citing ban evasion as the reason.
On 13 January 2021, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey tweeted about Trump's Twitter ban, 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". Internet centralization continues to be a riveting conversation surrounding Twitter and its banning policies.
On 19 November 2022, Trump's account was reinstated by Elon Musk. As late as August 2024, Trump had only used his Twitter account once in since its reinstatement, but had otherwise focused on making posts to his Truth Social social media platform. In August 2024, Trump began posting more frequently on his account. In February 2025, X settled a lawsuit filed by Trump in response to his suspension paying him approximately $10 million.

2022 suspensions of journalists

On 15 December 2022, ten 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.
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". A number of American Democratic Party lawmakers also criticized the bans.
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".
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. 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.

List of notable suspensions

2010–2015

Individual/accountDescriptionDateDurationReason for suspension
Operation Payback Anonymous hacktivist campaign in support of online piracy and WikiLeaks8 December 2010PermanentCoordinating denial-of-service attacks against PayPal, Mastercard and Visa.
Courtney Love American musician and actress7 January 2011Permanent 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.
Michael Q Sullivan President of Empower Texans18–21 July 2011TemporaryUnknown.
Anders Behring Breivik Norwegian far-right terrorist and perpetrator of the 2011 Norway attacks31 July 2011PermanentAfter Breivik was arrested, his account was hacked by Anonymous, who said they would delete it. It was later suspended.
Space Hijackers Anarchitects23 May 2012TemporaryCopyright complaint of the use of Olympics logo.
BILL NYE THO Parody account18–19 July 2012TemporaryUnknown.
Guy Adams British journalist for The Independent30–31 July 2012TemporaryPublishing 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.
BILL NYE THO Parody account19 September 2012Permanent; later reinstatedImpersonating a public figure. His account was reinstated in October 2013.
Big Bird Parody account3–4 October 2012TemporaryAfter 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.
Nick Griffin Far-right British National Party leader18–19 October 2012TemporaryPublishing the address of a gay couple.
Anonymous Hacktivist collective19 December 2012TemporaryPublishing personal information belonging to Westboro Baptist Church lawyer and member Shirley Phelps-Roper.
HSM Press Office Al-Shabaab account25 January 2013PermanentAnnounced a death threat against Kenyan hostages unless Kenya's government met its demands.
Burger King Restaurant account18 February 2013TemporaryA hacker changed the name to McDonald's and promoted their food.
HSMPress Al-Shabaab account5 September 2013PermanentThreatening to kill the Somali President.
HSM Press Al-Shabaab account21 September 2013PermanentBroadcasting their goals about the Westgate shopping mall attack.
شبكة شموخ الإسلام Al-Qaeda account29 September 2013PermanentAl-Qaeda's first official account.
Pace Picante Spoof account2 December 2013PermanentA fake employ 'Miles' started messaging to Kyle Kinane. Later turned out to be a prank pulled by comedian Randy Liedtke.
@Anon_Central and 30 other accountsHacktivists3 December 2013PermanentMisogynist abuse aimed at feminist campaigners on the social network.
Izz ad-Din al-Qassam BrigadesMilitary wing of Hamas11 January 2014PermanentUnspecified but likely connected to Hamas' 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 British chemist, YouTuber and anti-feminist vlogger20 September 2014TemporaryViolating Twitter's abusive behavior policy by sharing content targeting feminist media critic Anita Sarkeesian during the Gamergate controversy.
Darwin BondGraha Journalist11–12 December 2014TemporaryMistake after tweeting document obtained under state public records.
Godless Spellchecker English atheist blogger and podcaster3–5 January 2015TemporaryAlleged "targeted abuse or harassment". He had been repeatedly suspended in the past.
Charles C. Johnson American alt-right blogger24 May 2015PermanentViolating 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 ISIL memberJune 2015PermanentMaking a death threat against Nasser Al Qasabi.
Jared Fogle Subway spokesman21 August 2015PermanentPled 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 American man known for the killing of Trayvon Martin3 December 2015PermanentTweeting confidential information about an ex-girlfriend, including revenge porn.

2023

Individual/accountDescriptionDateDurationReason for suspension
Michael Russell President of the Scottish National Party17 January 2023TemporaryViolation of Twitter rules.
Steve Daines U.S. Senator from Montana7 February 2023TemporaryViolating 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.
Mike Lee Personal account of U.S. Senator from Utah1 March 2023TemporaryIncorrectly flagged as impersonation.
Globe Gazette American newspaper based in Mason City, Iowa16 March 2023TemporaryUnknown. Account restored a day later following appeals by the newspaper's editor, U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley, and U.S. Representative Ashley Hinson.
Sean Plunket New Zealand broadcaster3 April 2023Permanent; later reinstatedHateful conduct
Dell Cameron Senior reporter for Wired18 April 2023PermanentBanned after interviewing the person who hacked Matt Walsh's social media accounts.
@BlockTheBlueAccount encouraging users to block accounts subscribed to Twitter Blue21 April 2023PermanentUnknown.
Dominick "Lucre" McGee Right-wing influencer26 July 2023TemporaryViolating 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.
@JUNlPERShitposter6 October 2023PermanentUnclear; presumably accusing Elon Musk of pedophilia.
@UNSTABLEPOSTINGShitposter6 October 2023PermanentUnclear; presumably accusing Elon Musk of pedophilia.
@junegoblinmodeShitposter8 October 2023PermanentBan evasion.
Bob LonsberryConservative talk radio personalityOctober 2023PermanentAn unspecified violation of platform rules.
@EyeonPalestineAccount detailing life in Palestine25 October 2023PermanentUnknown. Happened on the same date that its Instagram account was locked allegedly due to security issues.
Robert Card @RobertC20041800Account used by the perpetrator of the 2023 Lewiston shootings26 October 2023PermanentUnknown

2024

Individual/accountDescriptionDateDurationReason for suspension
Yulia NavalnayaRussian opposition activist and widow of Alexei Navalny.20 February 2024TemporaryUnknown
Alejandra CaraballoTransgender attorney and activist19 March 2024Permanent; later reinstatedPosting the name of a webcomic artist who posts under the pseudonym of StoneToss.
Mandla MandelaActivist and grandson of Nelson Mandela26 April 2024PermanentUnknown
Ken KlippensteinAmerican journalist26 September 2024TemporaryPublication of a Donald Trump 2024 presidential campaign dossier into JD Vance.

2025

Individual/accountDescriptionDateDurationReason for suspension
Thomas SewellAustralian political activist5 February 2025
Blair CottrellAustralian political activist5 February 2025
Andrew Meyer
American journalist and entrepreneur1 October 2025Mass reported by communists and followers of Nick Fuentes

2026

Individual/accountDescriptionDateDurationReason for suspension