Former KKK leader David Duke's Twitter account temporarily suspended

Twitter temporarily suspended the account of David Duke on Monday following the former Ku Klux Klan leader's heated exchanged with actor Chris Evans on the social platform last month, according to a report.

The exact time during which the account was suspended on Monday morning remains unclear, but the white nationalist's handle was reportedly accessible again to followers at 1:40 p.m. EST. Duke's account, which had amassed over 30,000 Twitter followers as of February, appeared to have been reset to zero followers.

Twitter reactions to this story

"I'm back," Duke tweeted Monday afternoon after his account was reactivated. "Though I have no idea why I was suspended. Thank you to all of the wonderful people who offered support."

Reasons for Duke's suspension remain unclear. The controversial figure has gotten into spats on Twitter before, including trading jabs with actor Chris Evans.

Twitter has been taking more steps to crack down on hate speech, with Duke, a stanch Trump supporter, becoming the latest in a string of high-profile accounts associated with the alt-right movement to be suspended.

SEE ALSO: Ex-KKK leader David Duke says Hillary Clinton 'should be getting the electric chair'

Richard Spencer, the head of an alt-right think tank who had a verified account on Twitter, is among those to be suspended. His account was briefly booted by the social giant last summer in what he said to be a "coordinated effort to just wipe out alt-right Twitter," though a Twitter spokesman confirmed to Washington Post that the white nationalist's account was suspended for violation of the network's policy against having multiple, overlapping accounts.

And former Breitbart senior editor Milo Yiannopoulos was banned permanently from the social network in July after targeting actress Leslie Jones.

The social network has for years advertised itself as "the free speech wing of the free speech party."

However, as Twitter flourished, it increasingly received public backlash for its hands-off approach as hate speech, abuse and harassment became growing problems on the social platform, prompting it to curb harassment and abuse on its platform that violates the company's rules that ban hateful conduct.