The official Twitter account operated by the Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka was suspended for about a day before making a triumphant comeback on Tuesday.

While an alert message read that the account had been suspended for “violating the Twitter Rules,” it wasn’t clear what exactly had spurred the suspension.

The account had been rather active over the past few weeks, sharing Chinese state media reports about the coronavirus while criticizing reports from Western media and arguing with Twitter users who accused China of being responsible for the pandemic.

Compare China's efforts with the West, and tell us who cares their people's lives more. Mr. Ren broke the law and get investigation. Announced already. You care about one or two individuals, ignoring other 1.4 billion ppl. Interesting. — Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka (@ChinaEmbSL) April 9, 2020

So this notorious biased channel supported by Anti-China clique based in US is your access to learn about China? Or to blame China? Prejudice, arrogance and ignorance will not help to kill virus. #BlameChina games will not save their people, already proven in some countries. — Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka (@ChinaEmbSL) April 6, 2020

You are right that the "low class" Chinese government are serving 1.4billion Chinese people, even the grass root or the " lowest class" included. Total death in #China #pandemic is 3344 till today, much smaller than your western "high class" governments. Who are cursed? — Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka (@ChinaEmbSL) April 9, 2020

These acrimonious exchanges led to one Twitter user noting that for an embassy’s account, the language used was not terribly “diplomatic.”

“We are new on Twitter and still learning,” the account responded. “Will keep a diplomatic way, but no tolerance for fake news, racism, and hatred speech whatsoever.”

Thank you for the advice. We are new on Twitter and still learning. Will keep a diplomatic way, but no tolerance on fake news, racism and hatred speech whatsoever. Hope China and SL could join hands to win the battle against the virus. — Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka (@ChinaEmbSL) April 11, 2020

After being suspended, the embassy was outraged, declaring that it had applied to Twitter to reinstate the account immediately.

“This is double standards. There is so-called freedom of media, but on the other hand, they suspend and lock any account that is not on their agenda,” a spokesperson said.

On Tuesday morning, the embassy returned, triumphantly, writing that Twitter had apologized after making a “systematic mistake” by suspending its account.

”The Embassy feels regretful to this ‘systematic mistake,’ and would like to reiterate that the ‘Freedom Of Speech’must be honored, while not be misused to spread groundless, racial or hatred speech, nor be treated with ‘Double Standards,'” the account added.

On 13/4, Twitter suspended official account of the Embassy, without any specific reason. The Embassy made solemn representation twice, requesting to clarify and correct. This morning, Twitter replied for a "systematic mistake”, apologized and unsuspended our account. Statement👇 pic.twitter.com/55XCEk6i7q — Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka (@ChinaEmbSL) April 14, 2020

Quickly, the account has returned to business as usual, sparring with someone who asked if Twitter can now be unbanned in China.

“We believe if Twitter could follow the laws and rules of China, the market might also be opened to them,” the embassy replied. “Billions users on WeChat & Weibo.”

We follow the rules of Twitter, so they apologized for the mistake and reopened. We believe if Twitter could follow the laws and rules of China, the market might also be opened to them. Billions users on WeChat & Weibo. SL banned Twitter too when they violated domestic laws. https://t.co/7ezYVJYgzu — Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka (@ChinaEmbSL) April 14, 2020

While Twitter has been banned in China for more than a decade, the social media network has recently become all the rage among the country’s foreign diplomats.

China’s Foreign Ministry launched its own Twitter account in December and many Chinese embassies have since followed suit including the one in Colombo, which just joined Twitter last month.

Chinese officials have been actively using the accounts to present China’s narrative regarding the coronavirus, including by spreading unfounded conspiracy theories about the virus originating in the United States.