An account belonging to Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) was suspended from Twitter on Wednesday for unspecified violations of the social media platform’s policies.
“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,” the senator tweeted via his official account, which remained active throughout.
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. pic.twitter.com/1llVm4fVu3
— Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) March 1, 2023
Lee’s personal account was suspended for a few hours before the ban was reversed that afternoon.
However, the senator said that Twitter never gave him a reason for the suspension.
“Still no explanation from @Twitter as to what happened,” he tweeted after the account was restored.
Thanks to all who assisted in operation #Free@basedMikeLee. Still no explanation from @Twitter as to what happened.
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) March 1, 2023
While imaginations raged as to why the Republican senator’s account got suspended, Twitter CEO Elon Musk attempted to give insight into the suspension. In response to a user’s comments on Lee’s post announcing the suspension, Musk explained that it was an error as the system thought the account was a fake.
“His personal account (@BasedMikeLee) was incorrectly flagged as impersonation, which is not totally crazy, since it is based,” Musk wrote.
His personal account (@BasedMikeLee) was incorrectly flagged as impersonation, which is not totally crazy, since it is based
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 1, 2023
While it is his personal account, Lee uses the account, which has more than 80,000 followers, to spread messages. The account’s last tweet before the suspension was an article from The Federalist, which criticizes President Joe Biden’s foreign policy.
The article spoke about the societal ill that gets people labeled a Putin apologist or an “isolationist” by supporters of the Biden government when they question the president’s policies regarding the Ukraine-Russia war.
“It’s not exactly a sign of a healthy democratic discourse that it’s virtually impossible to ask a critical question about the United States’ role in the Ukraine-Russia conflict without being smeared as a Putin apologist or an ‘isolationist,” the article reads.
“Whatever the case, a president with decades of foreign policy incompetence on his resume, only recently costing 13 American servicemen their lives in a botched Afghanistan withdrawal, should not be immune from debate or criticism,” the article continued as it called for a fair and open-minded debate when it comes to discussions regarding the current administration’s approach or contributions to the war.
