Twitter Restores Pranay Pathole's Account: Did Elon Musk Intervene?

Twitter had suspended the account of Pranay Pathole, an Indian working in Pune, who had befriended the micro-blogging platform's CEO, Elon Musk. The account was temporarily deactivated owing to "policy violations", but has been restored to full functionality within 48 hours. Let's look at why Pathole's Twitter account was taken offline and how it was restored so quickly.

Twitter Suspends Pranay Pathole's Account For Policy Violations

Twitter on Thursday suspended the account of Pranay Pathole, a 24-year-old IT professional from Pune, India, who has been Elon Musk's friend for years. As per a report by IANS, Twitter suspended the account of Pranay Pathole because he violated its policies.

Pranay Pathole and Elon Musk have been friends since 2018. The duo has communicated with each other primarily on Twitter, but Pathole visited Musk's Tesla Gigafactory and met him personally in August 2022. Pathole had tweeted about the meeting.

It was so great meeting you @elonmusk at the Gigafactory Texas. Never seen such a humble and down-to-earth person. You're an inspiration to the millions 💕 pic.twitter.com/TDthgWlOEV

— Pranay Pathole (@PPathole) August 22, 2022

A little more than three months after the meeting, Twitter suspended Pathole's account. When another Twitter account alerted Elon Musk about the developments, Musk replied "Digging into this now."

Digging into this now

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 1, 2022

Did Elon Musk Intervene To Restore Pranay Pathole's Twitter Account?

In less than 48 hours of Elon Musk being alerted about Pranay Pathole's Twitter account's status, the suspension was overturned. Pathole even tweeted about Elon Musk driving the Tesla semi-Truck.

Elon driving Tesla Semi Truck 🔥 @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/fum4izXKNU

— Pranay Pathole (@PPathole) December 2, 2022

Pranay is Musk's long-time acquaintance on Twitter. He often tweets about Tesla and sometimes even gets replies from Musk himself. It is not immediately clear why Twitter suspended Pranay's account.

This rabbit role is deep... *Insanely* deep 😵‍💫 We've been trying to bring it to Elon's attention for months.https://t.co/3i5kBhAwOYhttps://t.co/uTkEow78vb pic.twitter.com/wZTmpt3XN2

— Renata Konkoly 🐢🦔 (@RenataKonkoly) November 23, 2022

Some Twitter accounts have been repeatedly claiming that Pranay Pathole's content was copied from Reddit comments. There's even a website that claims to offer a parallel comparison of the original Reddit comments and Pranay's tweets. Needless to mention, there are several, hard-to-miss, similarities.

I was just blocked by a notorious plagiarizer because I’m friends with people who pointed out he’s doing just that.
Every. Single. Tweet.
Zero care about others or community when they do that. pic.twitter.com/aGuVPSnaIG

— K10✨ (@Kristennetten) November 23, 2022

Even if the content is copied, Twitter needn't suspend an account as the content is not from the micro-blogging platform. However, it is possible that several Twitter users, who are also active on Reddit, may have complained about Pranay, which resulted in Twitter taking action based on the evidence submitted.

Pranay used to quote Reddit or you ‒ all the time. He acted like a personalized bot. I would not encourage this behavior; he even copy-pasted "his own feelings" from Reddit. https://t.co/J9mrAxFG5I

— Lauren Row (@LaurenRow5) December 1, 2022

While Pranay Pathole's account suspension could be part of a routine moderation exercise, it is not clear how a suspended account was restored to full functionality within such a short time.