Arizona state Rep. Mark Finchem, the Republican candidate for Secretary of State, wrote Monday that his Twitter account was suspended and then restored as new owner Elon Musk confirmed he would look into the incident—just about a week out from the 2022 midterm elections.
About an hour later, Finchem wrote that his account was restored.
It’s not clear why Finchem’s account was originally locked or if Musk was directly involved in reinstating his page. Twitter has not responded to a request for comment, and after Finchem’s account was restored, Musk has not posted about it since.
Finchem, a Republican state representative, is competing against Democrat Adrian Fontes for Arizona’s Secretary of State office. Polls have shown the two are embroiled in a tight race.
Musk, meanwhile, purchased Twitter for $44 billion last week and reportedly fired the company’s top executives. On Friday, the Tesla CEO wrote that Twitter would create a new “content moderation council” with “diverse” viewpoints.
Prior to the acquisition, Musk had voiced concerns about Twitter’s content moderation policies, accusing it of favoring left-wing political causes, and also said he doesn’t support permanent bans. Since early 2021, a number of prominent conservative figures, including former President Donald Trump as well as skeptics of COVID-19 vaccines have been permanently suspended from the website.
“When an account is in read-only mode, others will still be able to see and engage with the account,” Twitter’s Help Center page says. “The duration of this enforcement action can range from 12 hours to 7 days, depending on the nature of the violation.”
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