Twitter accidentally suspends the account of its own CEO Jack Dorsey

The Twitter account of the social media service’s CEO Jack Dorsey was briefly suspended on Tuesday evening before coming back online.

Dorsey’s account was reinstated around 9:15 p.m. ET but with a significantly reduced follower count.

Guys, I now have more followers than @jack pic.twitter.com/tgfktdvxCt

— Jon Passantino (@passantino) November 23, 2016

Twitter was not immediately available when contacted by CNBC but Dorsey tweeted that the suspension was an “internal mistake.”

Accounts can only be suspended by Twitter not by users. The company says on its website that it suspends accounts that “violate Twitter rules”. Some of the common reasons for being suspended include spam or fake accounts, if Twitter thinks the profile has been hacked, or if a user is tweeting abusive behaviour.

In recent days, Twitter has moved to suspend high-profile accounts of people linked to the “alt-right” movement. The company has come under criticism in the past few months for not dealing with abuse on its platform.