Jack Dorsey
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was briefly suspended from his own platform Teresa Kroeger/Getty Images for Thurgood Marshall College Fund

Twitter CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey's account was suspended on Tuesday night (22 November) for nearly half an hour before being reinstated. However, The Wall Street Journal reports that the account was restored with less than 200 followers, a significant drop from his previous 3.8 million followers.

It is not yet clear what caused the suspension or the reduction in followers. Dorsey later tweeted that the suspension was an "internal mistake" and he was busy setting up his Twitter account "again" whilst jokingly recalling his famous first tweet in which he said he was "just setting up my twttr." His millions of followers were later restored as well, WSJ reported.

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According to Twitter rules, an accountcan be suspended if users report them for abusive behaviour or content and the company confirms that they have been sending tweets that violate its policies. It also suspends accounts if they are spammy, fake or could introduce security risks for the platform and its users.

The company could also suspend an account if it suspects that it has been hacked or compromised until it can be safely restored "in order to reduce potentially malicious activity caused by the compromise".

The mysterious suspension comes just a week after Twitter suspended multiple high-profile accounts linked to the alt-right movement. The social media company also announced plans to combat hate speech, cyberbullying and abusive behaviour on its platform through new features and anti-harassment policies, including a "mute" tool that allows users to block specific keywords, conversation threads and phrases from their notifications.

Many social media users who noticed the brief suspension were quick to comment on the timing of it.

Hackers have also targeted top tech executives in the past on social media.

Notorious hacker group OurMine previously claimed responsibility for a series of social media account attacks targeting multiple celebrities and tech bosses including Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai, Dick Costolo and Travis Kalanick. Dorsey's Twitter account was also hacked in July by the group who tweeted from the compromised account that they were just "testing your security".

Twitter Hacking