St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter’s Twitter days aren’t over after all, despite a suspension that knocked him offline for days.

The popular social media platform suspended the mayor’s official Twitter account (@MAYORCARTER) sometime after Sept. 11 for reasons not entirely clear. As of at least last Sunday, the account’s profile page simply indicated “Account suspended. Twitter suspends accounts which violate the Twitter Rules.” No further explanation was posted.

As a result, the mayor’s Twitter history was also unavailable to public eyes, and his nearly two years of public statements on the platform were no longer visible.

Carter’s more popular personal account (@melvincarter3) remained active. It has 14,000 online followers, compared to about 7,500 for his official handle.

“My official Twitter account was suspended, apparently for impersonating myself,” said Carter, from his @melvincarter3 account on Wednesday.

Officials in the mayor’s office said it appears Twitter mistook the mayor’s official handle as an impostor account, and they worked to get the account restored through a verification process. A spokeswoman from Twitter’s media relations office said Wednesday they would confer with the mayor’s press staff. A few hours later, the account was back online.

My official Twitter account (@mayorcarter_) was suspended… apparently for impersonating myself. 🤷🏾‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/kXH83uTr1f — Melvin Carter (@melvincarter3) September 18, 2019

Suspensions from Twitter are not uncommon, and appear to be on the rise given heightened concern over online threats escalating into real-world violence. Even users who have shared harrowing personal stories — including videos of threats and violence directed at themselves — have been blocked. That’s led to widespread debate over why some accounts are temporarily muted or suspended but not others.

In early August, Twitter suspended a campaign account belonging to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell after the account shared a video of protesters chanting outside the Republican lawmaker’s Louisville home.

I was suspended recently. I was on another page talking about how autism when I was a kid was brutal. How I was just called socially awkward and re***d. APPARENTLY, even if you're talking about your own personal experience, you're not allowed to use that word. — sharon ferguson (@sharannie63) September 18, 2019

Under pressure from McConnell’s supporters, Twitter then reinstated the account two days later, and explained in a written statement that “the video contained a violent threat directed at Leader McConnell, a clear violation of the Twitter Rules.” Related Articles Carter, Frey declare Sept. 21 RBG Day in the Twin Cities

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The statement said the video would still be available online, behind an interstitial marked “sensitive media” that users would have to click to access the content.

Twitter, which has 321 million active users, draws some 126 million users on a daily basis. The San Francisco-based company was launched in 2006 and has been publicly traded on the stock market since November 2013.