According to a screenshot posted on Finchem’s Facebook account, he had his account locked after breaking “Twitter rules” earlier on Monday. Finchem posted later that Twitter had not let him know what he “did wrong” to lose his tweeting privileges.
“Twitter has blocked my account from speaking truth with one week left until the election,” Finchem wrote on Facebook. “They are trying to put their thumb on the scales of this election. Tag Elon Musk and tell him to unban me right now.”
Jenna Ellis, a lawyer who represented former President Donald Trump in 2020, tweeted a screenshot of a campaign email from Finchem asking her to tweet at Musk to unban him.
Ellis tagged Musk in her post and added, “this shouldn’t happen a week before the election!”
Musk responded to the tweet from Ellis within the hour, saying he was “looking into it.”
Finchem was able to post again shortly after Musk tweeted, and thanked Twitter’s new owner for reinstating him.
“Thank you @elonmusk for stopping the commie who suspended me from Twitter a week before the election,” Finchem wrote. “Twitter is much better with you at the helm.”
It is unclear why Finchem’s account was originally restricted or if Musk had a direct hand in reinstating the account.
Musk, who finalized a $44 billion deal to buy Twitter on Thursday, had previously criticized Twitter’s content rules, which led to some users’ accounts being suspended indefinitely, including Trump’s.
On Friday, Musk announced that Twitter would form a new “content moderation council” under his leadership, which would decide if accounts that have been permanently suspended should be reinstated.
Musk was praised by other users on Monday, including Ellis who posted later, “I LOVE THE NEW @elonmusk OWNERSHIP.”
Former Arkansas GOP congressional candidate Conrad Reynolds also reposted Finchem’s tweet that thanked Musk, writing, “@elonmusk got it done.”
Columnist and chief creative officer for Turning Point Benny Johnson also posted about the news, saying it called for further action into Twitter’s content rules.
“Now it’s time to figure out why this keeps happening to Conservatives and put an end to it,” Johnson wrote.
Newsweek has reached out to Musk’s press team for comment.
