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Chuck Johnson Says Twitter Has Banned Him for Good (Sort Of)

Twitter has done this before, Johnson says.

Twitter

Well-known Twitter troll Chuck Johnson says the service has told him that his suspended account won’t be restored.

Johnson’s account was suspended Sunday after he tweeted what appeared to be a physical threat to civil rights activist DeRay McKesson. Johnson later told Re/code that the tweet was not intended as a physical threat.

Johnson has had his account suspended multiple times before, and said Sunday that he expected it would be restored in a few days. Twitter has apparently had enough of Johnson’s antics — he has a long history of antagonizing the Internet — and Twitter sent Johnson an email Monday morning saying that his account “will not be restored.”

But Johnson says the company has done this before, and then allowed him back. “They always do that before they restore it,” he said in an email. A Twitter spokesperson could not be reached for comment.

Johnson and his lawyer also sent a letter to Twitter Monday demanding that the company reinstate his account. In the meantime, Johnson says “his team” is running another account, @freechucknow, where he tweeted out a screenshot from the email Twitter sent him. (Update: This account has also been suspended.)

https://twitter.com/freechucknow/status/602897867229908992

This is one of the biggest issues Twitter faces with those who violate its terms of service. It can ban or even remove one account entirely, but it only takes a new email address to create a new one.

Johnson’s ban over the weekend appears to have taken place thanks to new Twitter guidelines that give the company more leeway in determining what constitutes a threat on the service.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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