Daines says Musk reached out to him personally to resolve Twitter suspension

Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) said on Tuesday that Twitter CEO Elon Musk personally reached out to him to resolve his account suspension. 

Daines’s account was suspended on Tuesday morning after he posted a picture showing him and his wife hunting an antelope, an apparent violation of Twitter’s media policy.

The senator’s account was restored the same day after Musk said the suspension was “being fixed.”

“I am grateful Elon Musk reached out to me to resolve this issue and am glad that he recognizes that free speech is a bedrock of our country, and acted quickly to reinstate my Twitter account after being made aware of its suspension,” Daines said in a statement.

“The initial ban over the profile photo of my wife and me after a successful Montana antelope hunt was disappointing given the fact that it is no different than photos Montanans share on social media every day. It’s our Montana way of life and we are proud of it,” he added.

Some Republicans also sided with Daines following the suspension of his account, including former President Trump, who called the suspension a “disgrace.”

Musk later tweeted that “policy against showing blood in profile pic is being amended to ‘clearly showing blood without clicking on the profile pic.’ The intent is to avoid people being forced to see gruesome profile pics.”

“Going forward, Twitter will be broadly accepting of different values, rather than trying to impose its own specific values on the world,” Musk added.