"I thank Musk"

Martin Sellner’s X-ban has been lifted

Martin Sellner thanked X boss Elon Musk in a video.(Bild: Screenshot twitter.com/Martin_Sellner)

The year-long ban on his account was lifted on Saturday. The former head of the far-right Identitarian movement in Austria, Martin Sellner, is now allowed to write on the short message platform X (formerly Twitter) again. You can see from the flood of posts he has published since then that he has missed it.

"I am happy and grateful that I can be on Twitter/X again. I especially thank Musk for making this platform more open again. Hope the trend continues and everyone else who was banned comes back," the 35-year-old explained and also posted a video (see below).

"Welcome back, darling"
In it, he complained about a "campaign of lies" that had been spread about him. He also noted that he had been "the subject of the debate, but not a participant in it". In addition to his words of thanks, Sellner also commented on current controversial topics and presented his latest book. Among the first well-wishers was Sellner's girlfriend, who greeted him with the words on X: "Welcome back, darling!"

Martin Sellner(Bild: AFP/Alex Halada)

That's why Sellner was banned
The 2020 ban was justified by a Twitter spokesperson with reference to a policy stating that the threat or promotion of terrorism or violent extremism would not be tolerated on the platform.

 Since buying Twitter in the fall of 2022, tech billionaire Elon Musk has had numerous previously blocked Twitter accounts reactivated. Numerous employees who were responsible for the security of the platform and the fight against banned content have been dismissed.