Twitter temporarily suspends Hungarian government's account

September 30, 2020

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — The Hungarian government says its official Twitter account was temporarily suspended and then restored without explanation. Government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said Wednesday in a Facebook post that “we have taken the necessary steps and are awaiting an official explanation from Twitter” regarding the status of the government’s @abouthungary account.

While the account was suspended, the following notice appeared on its feed: "Twitter suspends accounts which violate the Twitter rules." Kovacs, who frequently defends Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s anti-migration policies and his “illiberal democracy” in the international media, said “it seems that the beautiful new world has finally arrived, in which tech giants are silencing those who hold different opinions than loopy liberals.”

Kovacs also noted that the account's suspension came on the same day that the EU’s executive arm, the European Commission, published a report on the state of democracy and the rule of law in all the EU's 27 countries.

Another Twitter account, @RMXnews, which belongs to a government-supported media publication, was also suspended with the same notice and had yet to be restored. Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.