MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s Twitter account has been restored after almost two years of being permanently suspended over his unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
“I'm back!! Thank you @elonmusk and by the way MELT DOWN THE ELECTRONIC VOTING MACHINES AND TURN THEM INTO PRISON BARS!” Lindell tweeted on Friday.
Lindell’s account was suspended in January 2021 following “repeated” violations of Twitter’s civic integrity policy.
Lindell has been a staunch supporter of former President Trump and backed his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
Lindell is the most recent in a line of several notable public figures whose accounts have been unfrozen since Elon Musk took over Twitter in late October. Musk also ended the suspensions of Trump’s account and that of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), whose access was frozen over her repeated violations of the platform’s COVID-19 misinformation policy.
Trump, whose account was banned in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, has said he does not plan to return to Twitter.
Musk has emphasized free speech on the platform, but he has faced widespread backlash in the past two days over his suspensions of certain journalists’ accounts.
Musk claimed that they were doxing him and revealing his specific location, which he said amounts to “assassination coordinates.” The journalists have said they were covering Twitter’s suspension on Wednesday of an account that tracked the location of Musk’s private jet using publicly available information.
Musk restored the journalists’ accounts early Saturday morning after a majority in a poll he posted said the suspensions should be lifted immediately.
Arizona Republican gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake, who has also backed Trump’s false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election, praised Lindell’s return, tweeting “Greatest Tweet EVER! Welcome back! We missed you.”
Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D) has been certified as the winner of the governor’s race, but Lake has refused to concede and is pursuing a challenge to the results in a lawsuit.
