Pillow vendor and 2020 conspiracy mogul Mike Lindell publicly appealed to Elon Musk this week for his Twitter account to be reinstated.
The MyPillow CEO was banned from the platform earlier this year after he created a second account to evade a temporary ban handed down by the platform’s moderators, who had flagged his account for spreading misinformation about the 2020 election.
In a broadcast as part of his “Lindell TV” programme on a right-wing streaming site, he called on Mr Musk to make contact with him and claimed that the billionaire Tesla founder was ignoring him.
“Why don’t you call me up or get ahold of me? I’ve tried to get a hold of you many, many times now,” claims Mr Lindell in the clip. “I was banned from twitter because I had the evidence to save this country and overturn an election.”
It isn’t clear why Mr Lindell would have needed a Twitter account to overturn the 2020 election, or why he has not presented any evidence to prove widespread voter fraud if he supposedly has it in his possession.
While the spectacle of Mr Lindell begging for his Twitter account was bizarre, it raised a valid question as to why Mr Musk has not restored his access.
The new Twitter CEO has reversed a number of other bans targeting high-profile accounts, including that of Donald Trump who was stripped of access to the platform after January 6.
Mr Lindell committed similar violations of Twitter’s civic integrity policy, leading to his initial suspension, but none of his statements on the platform violated policies as seriously as others who have seen their accounts restored.
It’s possible that Mr Lindell’s ban remains in place due to his attempts to evade the platform’s enforcement measures, which Twitter took very seriously in the pre-Musk era and may continue to do so.
The MyPillow chief executive faces a $1.3bn lawsuit from a voting machine company over his false claims regarding their products; the lawsuit is set to go to trial in the months ahead.
