Twitter reverses suspension of Mike Lee’s personal account

Twitter reversed the suspension of Sen. Mike Lee’s (R-Utah) personal account on Wednesday afternoon, hours after it was locked for unknown reasons. 

Lee appeared to regain access to his @BasedMikeLee account around 2:30 p.m., when users were able to see his Tweets once again. 

“Thanks to all who assisted in operation #Free@basedMikeLee. Still no explanation from @Twitter as to what happened,” Lee tweeted from his personal account. 

The account had been suspended earlier Wednesday, with his feed only reading “Account suspended,” and that “Twitter suspends accounts that violate Twitter rules.”

Leaving a Senate GOP lunch Wednesday, Lee told The Hill that he wasn’t sure why the account got suspended.

“Yeah, I just noticed that,” he said. “No idea why. I checked my email and I checked my direct mentioning function on the Twitter app and I haven’t received anything. Weird.”

While the account was still suspended, Lee Tweeted from his official account that, “My personal Twitter account – @BasedMikeLee – has been suspended. Twitter did not alert me ahead of time, nor have they yet offered an explanation for the suspension. My team and I are seeking answers.”

Reporters noted that Lee on Wednesday morning tweeted at the Japanese Prime Minister calling for the return of imprisoned Navy Lt. Ridge Alkonis, who is serving prison time for his role in a deadly car crash.

“I didn’t say anything that’s worthy of suspension, so I don’t know,” Lee added about the tweet in question.

The Hill reached out to Twitter for comment.

Twitter last month briefly suspended the account of Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) after Daines’s account displayed an image of him and his wife hunting as the profile picture. The suspension prompted an outcry from Republicans and the account was reinstated later the same day.

On Wednesday, Daines tweeted, “Here we go again…@Twitter, why is my colleague @BasedMikeLee locked out of his account? #FreeLee“

Updated at 2:43 p.m.