[UPDATE]: Twitter has restored Portnoy’s account. The Daily Wire reported on Twitter’s restoration of Portnoy’s account here.
Original Story Below:
The founder of Barstool Sports, Dave Portnoy, started trending on Twitter on Friday evening after it appeared that Portnoy’s account was suspended by the Big Tech giant.
Users who tried to access Portnoy’s Twitter profile, which is followed by over 2.5 million people, were presented with the recognizable “Account suspended” banner, followed only by the words, “Twitter suspends accounts that violate the Twitter Rules.”
The verified account titled, “BFFs with Dave Portnoy and Josh Richards” — the Twitter account for the weekly podcast presented by Barstool Sports — tweeted a screenshot of Portnoy’s apparently suspended account, alongside the hashtag, “#FREEPORTNOY.”
#FREEPORTNOY pic.twitter.com/MYY4l9vh9C
— BFFs with Dave Portnoy and Josh Richards (@BFFsPod) June 18, 2021
A few minutes earlier, the same account posted a cryptic tweet, which read, “you’ll want to tune into next week’s episode.”
you’ll want to tune into next week’s episode 🧐
— BFFs with Dave Portnoy and Josh Richards (@BFFsPod) June 18, 2021
Others were quick to notice that Portnoy’s account was suddenly inaccessible.
NBC News social media editor, Evan Rosenfeld, tweeted, “Barstool Sports’ Dave Portnoy has been suspended from Twitter.”
Barstool Sports’ Dave Portnoy has been suspended from Twitter pic.twitter.com/EMDq7Yx8n3
— Evan Rosenfeld | אבן רוזנפלד (@Evan_Rosenfeld) June 19, 2021
“Twitter’s purpose is to serve the public conversation. Violence, harassment, and other similar types of behavior discourage people from expressing themselves and ultimately diminish the value of global public conversation. Our rules are to ensure all people can participate in the public conversation freely and safely,” the social media platform states in their “Twitter Rules.”
Under the header of “safety,” various offending behavior is not permitted. This includes violence, terrorism/violent extremism, child sexual exploitation, abuse/harassment, hateful conduct, suicide or self-harm, sensitive media (including graphic violence and adult content), and illegal or certain regulated goods or services.
Under the header of “privacy,” users are not permitted to publish content which contains private information or examples of non-consensual nudity.
Finally, under the header of “authenticity,” users cannot engage in platform manipulation and spam, impact “civic integrity,” impersonate other users, or “deceptively share synthetic or manipulated media that are likely to cause harm.”
At this time, it remains unclear why Portnoy was suspended from Twitter. However, some Twitter users speculated that the Barstool Sports founder was targeted following an alleged threat to “drop my nuts on your head” regarding a disagreement over Penn National Gaming stock.
On his Instagram account, which has 3.7 million followers, Portnoy posted an image to his story in which he appears to pose with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, with the caption “#freeportnoy,” tagging the Twitter chief executive.
The Barstool Sports founder spoke with Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro on “The Ben Shapiro Show: Sunday Special” in April and explained why he doesn’t refrain from engaging in social media altercations.
Portnoy told Shapiro during an interview that aired on Sunday, April 25, that he’s willing to debate with anyone — even in front of a crowd — but that he’s not willing to just stand around and take it when critics come at him first.
“There is an audience that appreciates, and it’s not even Left or Right, it’s kind of both, like, ‘I like how these guys aren’t backing down.’ And our audience allows us to do that, so people have always asked, ‘Why do you fight back’ or ‘Why do you push back’ or ‘Why don’t you just shut up when someone takes a shot at you that you feel is unfair.’ It’s like, I’m not going to do that. I will never throw the first punch, but if you throw a shot at me on Twitter — out of the clouds — it’s not my responsibility to protect you,” said Portnoy.