SPRINGFIELD -- Bishop Talbert Swan, the president of the Springfield chapter of the NAACP and the head of Spring of Hope Church of God in Christ on Alden Street, has been permanently banned from Twitter.

Swan, who had a verified account with about 77,000 followers, said he was not notified by Twitter of the ban, but by followers sending him screenshots reading "this account has been suspended," when they clicked on his handle @TalbertSwan.

After several days of trying to reach Twitter administrators, he was sent an email saying the account was suspended for "hateful conduct."

"When I looked up the hateful conduct policy they are citing as the reason for banning my account, it spoke about threatening someone with violence based on religion, sexual orientation, etc.," he said.

The policy also considers repeated and/or non-consensual slurs, epithets, racist and sexist tropes, or other content that degrades someone as hateful conduct.

Although Twitter did not specify what Tweet got him banned, Swan believes it was a Tweet he sent out in May in response to someone asking him to follow Candace Owens, a black conservative and critic of the Black Lives Matter movement.

"I responded by writing 'No thanks, I'm on the no coon diet'," he said.

Swan explained that while the term is pejorative and racist towards black people, it does not have the same meaning when used by black people.

"You can have a black person use the same term and it has a different connotation. It's the never ending argument about using the n word and so on. When you look at the word coon, when black folks use the term, it's synonymous with calling someone a traitor or a sell out who works against the best interest of their people," he said.

Swan said does not understand how Twitter banned him permanently for the Tweet while users like Alex Jones, a radio host and conspiracy theorist, are allowed to keep their accounts.

"How is that worth a permanent suspension to use the word coon, when they slapped Alex Jones on the wrist for inciting violence and conspiracy theories and saying Sandy Hook was a farce," he said. "Facebook, Instagram and Spotify thought his content was so vile they banned him from their sites, but Twitter gave him a week's suspension and allowed him to go back," he said.

Swan also questioned why white people who use racist terms on the platform are allowed to keep their accounts active.

"When you look at what I said in comparison to the president calling a black woman a dog or Rosanne Barr comparing a black woman to a gorilla and they are still on the site, you have to wonder if they are being even handed in terms of how they are enforcing terms of service," he said referring to Donald Trump's tweet about Omarosa Manigault-Newman and Barr's Tweet about Valerie Jarrett.

"They can say racist and pejorative things about black people and are allowed to keep their account, but I'm permanently banned from the site. It's completely ridiculous," he said.

What makes the banning more confusing to Swan is that he was reprimanded for the Tweet back in June.

"My account was suspended by Twitter for 12 hours in June for this Tweet, so why am I being punished again for the same Tweet?" he asked.

A representative from Twitter said the company does not comment on individual account suspensions "for privacy and security reasons."

He did confirm that once an account has been permanently banned the user can not create another account under the same name. In the email, he also linked a page where suspended users can appeal Twitter's decision.

Swan said he attempted to appeal the decision, but he is required to login to the suspended account to do so.

"I have been locked out of the account and am not allowed to reset the password so there is no way to appeal the decision and no one from Twitter will speak with me about this other than to send me an email," he said.

Swan said he had a very active Twitter account.

"I had Tweets that garnered a high level of interest, literally getting tens of thousands and occasionally hundreds of thousands of likes and retweets. Many of my Tweets have been quoted in various news outlets from the Huffington Post to NBC," he said. " To be essentially de-platformed for using the word coon is mind boggling to me."

A search of Talbert Swan on Twitter brings ups many Tweets by people outraged by Twitter's decision. There are also Tweets from people who claimed to have reported Swan for the Owens Tweet.

"I was very vocal about Trump and the alternative right did not like (perhaps) that's why I was banned," he said.