PVV leader Geert Wilders can again send messages from his Twitter account. The politician was suspended from the platform last week following a tweet to Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, in which he called Pakistani Muslims violent and described the Prophet Mohammed as “fake”. According to Twitter, this would fall under “hateful conduct”. Wilders appealed against the suspension and would have been found in the right on Tuesday, he reports Twitter†
Strikingly enough, the controversial tweet was removed from Wilders’ account on Tuesday afternoon, according to the website Politwoops which keeps track of deleted tweets from politicians. This happened two minutes before Wilders reported to be back on the platform. Earlier, Wilders said he could lift the suspension by deleting the tweet, but chose to appeal. It is not clear whether Wilders himself deleted the tweet.
In the screenshot that Wilders himself shared on Tuesday afternoon, Twitter says it has made a mistake. This is a standard message that is sent after someone has successfully appealed against a suspension. “We have determined that there was no violation and the account has been fully reinstated. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience,” it reads. Because no names of Wilders’ account or specific tweets are mentioned in the screenshot, the authenticity of the message cannot be verified. Wilders has not yet responded to questions from NRC†