- Roger Stone was banned from Twitter in 2017 after attacking journalists online.
- He tried to rejoin the platform after Elon Musk's purchase of the site and was banned hours later.
- "I'm anxious to see how strong Elon Musk's commitment to free speech is," he said.
Longtime political operative Roger Stone briefly returned to Twitter after being permanently suspended – only to be banned again hours later, The Daily Beast reported.
"Well bitches I'm back on Twitter," the close ally of former President Trump said on Telegram early Thursday. "I'm anxious to see how strong Elon Musk's commitment to free speech is."
—Zachary Petrizzo (@ZTPetrizzo) April 28, 2022
The Daily Mail reported that Stone was on Twitter from about 1 a.m. to 11 a.m. ET, gaining about 80 followers before being banned.
"I posted a new account to prove a point," Stone told the Daily Beast."I look forward to whoever made the decision to suspend my account getting fired. Attn: Elon Musk."
Twitter accepted Musk's $44 billion buyout of the site on Monday, after first fighting against it. The deal is set to close sometime this year.
The billionaire said in a statement he hopes to "make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spambots, and authenticating all humans," while advocating for absolute free speech.
A spokesperson for Twitter told The Daily Beast that Stone's account "was permanently suspended for violations of the Twitter Rules, specifically our ban evasion policy."
Stone was originally suspended from Twitter in 2017 for targeting CNN reporters Jake Tapper and Don Lemon and New York Times columnist Charles Blow. The journalists reported on special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 election and Stone called it "fake news," while adding derogatory slurs.
"The battle against free speech has just begun," Stone told Politico after his initial ban. "This is a strange way to do business and part and parcel of the systematic effort by the tech left to censor and silence conservative voices."
In 2019, Stone was sentenced to 40 months in prison on one count of obstruction, five counts of false statements, and one count of witness tampering for his involvement in the 2016 election but Trump commuted his sentence.
Stone has also said that Trump's Truth Social app, a Twitter alternative, censored his use of free speech as well.
Representatives for Twitter and Stone did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
