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Today Twitter suspended and then re-instated the account of former Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan and senate candidate David Duke. For a period on Monday morning, Duke's account is inaccessible, displaying a message that the account has been taken offline. By 2:00 P.M. EST on Monday afternoon, the account was reinstated. Duke tweeted that he wasn't sure why the account was taken down.
While its currently not clear which specific tweets brought about the suspension, Duke is well known on Twitter for his White Nationalist and political rhetoric. In the run up to and after the 2016 election, Duke has been a vocal proponent of Donald Trump and a number of his domestic policies.
Duke also mixes it up, picking fights with politicians, liberals, and celebrities. Last month, Duke got in a prolonged Twitter fight with actor Chris Evans, who plays Captain America. “Why does Chris Evans, who plays the Jewish inspired super hero, Captain America, hate the women of his people so much? #WhiteGenocide,” Duke tweeted at the actor.
Most recently, Duke was tweeting about this weekend's dueling Trump and anti-Trump protests in places like Berkeley, California, causing some to wonder on Twitter if Duke was inciting pro-Trump supporters toward violence.
Duke's brief suspension comes at a time when Twitter is making a concerted, public effort to crack down on its abuse problem. Since January, the company has rolled out better spam filters and algorithmic tools to de-prioritize egg accounts and comments from trolls. The company also started relying on algorithms last week to police accounts for violating rules. It's unclear whether the suspension was the result of any new algorithmic abuse prevention practices. Twitter has yet to respond to a request for comment.
White nationalist, Richard Spencer, (who was banned from Twitter recently on a technicality and later reinstated) tweeted and suggested that those angered by Duke's suspension should join a crowdsourced lawsuit to sue Twitter for discrimination.
For Duke's part, he appears hopeful that the (potentially mistaken) suspension and re-instatement will help him get a verified Twitter account.
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