Dave Portnoy, Founder of Barstool Sports, Briefly Suspended From Twitter

#FreeDavePortnoy started to trend after people learned of the suspension, which proved to be short-lived

Dave Portnoy
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Dave Portnoy, the founder of the popular sports pop culture website Barstool Sports, had his Twitter account suspended for a brief period on Friday night.

It’s unclear what Portnoy did to warrant the suspension. A rep for Twitter would not comment on the suspension except to say “the account you reference has been reinstated.”

But Twitter users noted that earlier in the day, Portnoy — who has a history of blunt, provocative statements — engaged in a Twitter feud with another user, at one point writing, “Let me drop my nuts on your head.”

Portnoy’s suspended Twitter page was reinstated a short time later, albeit without his followers or verification status. For the duration of the suspension, his profile page, @stoolpresidente, simply said “Account Suspended” with a line that read, “Twitter suspends accounts which violate the Twitter Rules.”

Once his account was restored, he simply tweeted, “I’m back,” with a short video of Ric Flair.

Portnoy previously had over 2.5 million followers on Twitter.

Dave Portnoy was well aware of the suspension, having made two Instagram Story posts with #freeportnoy in them. The hashtag “FreeDavePortnoy” was trending on Friday night.

The main Barstool Sports Twitter account, which has close to 3 million followers, remains active.

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