Sen. Mike Lee says his personal Twitter account was suspended

(CNN) — A personal Twitter account belonging to Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee was suspended without warning or explanation, according to the senator.

Tweeting from his official Senate account, Lee said he has reached out to Twitter “seeking answers.”

“My personal Twitter account — @BasedMikeLee — has been suspended,” Lee tweeted. “Twitter did not alert me ahead of time, nor have they yet offered an explanation for the suspension.”

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

CNN confirmed the suspension Wednesday afternoon by visiting the affected profile, which displayed a suspension message from Twitter. As of 2:30 pm ET, an hour after his tweet, the account appeared to be restored.

Twitter, which has cut much of its public relations team, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNN.

The suspension marks the second time in a month that Twitter has briefly suspended a sitting US senator. In February, Twitter temporarily suspended Montana Republican Sen. Steve Daines’ account over a profile photo that Twitter said violated its policies. Twitter CEO Elon Musk later personally reached out to Daines by phone and restored his account.

After the account was reactivated, Lee tweeted that he doesn’t know why his personal account was suspended.

Musk responded to another tweet saying Lee’s personal account was suspended for being incorrectly flagged as impersonation.

His personal account (@BasedMikeLee) was incorrectly flagged as impersonation, which is not totally crazy, since it is based

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 1, 2023

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