MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell called for ending electronic voting machines in his return to Twitter on Friday afternoon after he had been banned from the platform before billionaire Elon Musk took over.
“I’m back!! Thank you @elonmusk and by the way MELT DOWN THE ELECTRONIC VOTING MACHINES AND TURN THEM INTO PRISON BARS!” Lindell wrote on Twitter Friday afternoon.
I’m back!! Thank you @elonmusk and by the way MELT DOWN THE ELECTRONIC VOTING MACHINES AND TURN THEM INTO PRISON BARS!
— Mike Lindell (@realMikeLindell) December 16, 2022
In response to his tweet, Brigitte Gabriel, a conservative author and the founder of the grassroots group Act for America, wrote “BAN ALL VOTING MACHINES!”
Meanwhile, Yale professor Howard Forman commented on Lindell’s tweet, saying, “Are you going to prison soon? I don’t think we need more prison cells. There will always be room for you!”
Some Twitter bans have been recently lifted from a number of accounts belonging to conservative figures since Musk became the platform’s CEO following his $44 billion acquisition deal that was finalized in late October.
Even former President Donald Trump‘s account has been reinstated, even though he vowed that he will not be using the social media platform. The former president gained hundreds of thousands of new followers on Twitter within a few days after getting back his account on November 19.
Meanwhile, Lindell, an avid Trump supporter, has been repeatedly banned on Twitter for violating the platform’s terms of use. He was permanently banned from the platform in January 2021 after touting baseless claims of 2020 presidential election fraud.
He launched a new account in May but was banned again in less than four hours after creating his new account.
That second ban came in compliance with Twitter’s ban evasion policy, which prevents attempts to bypass suspensions, “including through the creation of new accounts.”
Lindell’s second account that he launched in May gained 20,000 new followers within nearly five minutes after it was created, and racked up over 37,000 followers right before it was blocked again by Twitter the same day.
Lindell has long promoted false claims about President Joe Biden‘s victory over Trump and attended events and rallies across the country to tout the so-called “big lie” claiming that the 2020 election was stolen.
He also previously claimed that he spent some $35 million of his own money to try to persuade people that voter fraud happened in the 2020 presidential election.
The move to reinstate Lindell’s account came after high-profile journalists were suspended on the platform on Thursday without explanation from Musk. Among the accounts suspended include those of Washington Post technology reporter Drew Harwell, CNN‘s Donie O’Sullivan, The New York Times‘ Ryan Mac, Mashable writer Matt Binder and Micah Lee of The Intercept.
Newsweek has reached out to Twitter for comment.
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