Twitter has suspended the account of the deputy director of shock blog GeenStijl, accusing him of publishing misleading information about the European elections.

The social media site has been cracking down on fake news in the run up to the May 23 European elections and has set up a special button where people can report wrong information.

But Bart Nijman says there is no question about him spreading misleading information. In the post in question, Nijman says that he normally recommends staying home when it comes to voting for the European parliament. ‘But is time to give the drunken heads a populist bashing,’ he says. ‘So vote Eurosceptic on May 23.’

Aanleiding: een cynische retweet van een blog van @SypWynia. Een oproep tot eurosceptisch stemmen op 23 mei mag niet meer van @jack: pic.twitter.com/7sg6GxYadR

— GeenStijl (@geenstijl) May 7, 2019

Nijman has made a formal protest to Twitter about the ban and says he has no intention of removing the comment, as Twitter has demanded. ‘It is a question of principle,’ Nijman said.

Nijman was one of the main organisers of the 2017 Ukraine referendum and is a known critic of the EU.

Update: Nijman said on Twitter later that the ban had been lifted ‘due to the media attention’. Twitter apparently said the account had been suspended in ‘human error’.