'Irish Examiner' columnist Séamas O'Reilly has X account reinstated

Mr O'Reilly suspects ban was link to his column in this newspaper, where he wrote about the social media platform

Séamas O'Reilly, who has almost 100,000 followers, had gone nearly a week without being able to read his tweets. Picture: Orfhlaith Whelan

Irish Examiner columnist and author Séamas O'Reilly has been reinstated on X, formerly Twitter, having been banned after writing about the social media platform. 

The popular commentator was suspended from the platform and claimed he did not know why but said he suspected the ban was linked to his column which he said made "reference to the fact that Twitter/X may be considered complicit in the deluge of bots and scams on their platform given that it materially benefits from their activities".

Mr O'Reilly previously said the suspension came within hours of his latest column going on the platform.

The journalist, who has almost 100,000 followers, had gone nearly a week without being able to read his tweets. 

He said he had made efforts to contact Twitter, using a link provided in the notification. 

“I have heard nothing back and nor, at time of writing, have any of the news organisations currently asking whether an Irish-headquartered tech behemoth has really suspended an Irish journalist for critiquing their operation in an Irish newspaper,” he said.

X had claimed Mr O'Reilly had been originally suspended for violating X's rules "against platform manipulation and spam". 

However, on Friday, the journalist received a notification from X which said the suspension on his account was lifted. 

He said his account had been suspended for sending "multiple unsolicited replies or mentions" which he said was completely different to what he had been originally suspended for. 

Mr O'Reilly told the Irish Examiner he was "mostly happy" to be reinstated back on X — which allows him to do his work — but said it was not something that "should happen to someone whether they have written about Twitter or not". 

He has successfully used his account for 14 years, having first come to public attention with a story thread on an unusual meeting with former president Mary McAleese.