Twitter account GnasherJew, responsible for unveiling scores of antisemites, has achieved something even Donald Trump failed to do overturning a ban to be on the social media site.

The account, run by a group of four anonymous racism-hunters, was suspended at the end of March thanks to “malicious reporting” by some of its targets. But it was reinstated as suddenly and without warning as it had been closed down, late on Monday night, after a community-wide campaign and involving lawyers in the dispute.

GnasherJew, which has 16,000 followers on Twitter, was never given the full details of why it was suspended, which meant it was never able to fully dispute the claims. But over the last month thousands of social media accounts used the hashtag #ReinstateGnasherJew to draw attention to the suspension while a letter was signed by 540 people including MPs, Lords, rabbis and celebrities.

“When we were first banned, we were given no reason and had no communication from Twitter as to why,” say the people behind the GnasherJew account. ‘”We were thinking about giving up and walking away but then we saw that #ReinstateGnasherJew was trending on Twitter and we thought, ‘Well, if those guys can achieve this, we have to keep fighting.’’

The group instructed top libel lawyer Mark Lewis of Patron Law, who is also presently representing Rachel Riley in her case against a former Jeremy Corbyn aide, and Labour antisemitism whistle blowers in a suit against the party. “I got in touch with Twitter indicating that we were instructed and setting out our position and there was a brief exchange,” he says. “Twitter seem to have accepted our case and the account was reinstated. It appears there had been some malicious reporting – that Twitter had been sent some deliberately incorrect information. At first, they seemed reluctant to reverse the decision, perhaps to save face, but seemingly reflected on the false information that they had been given by Jew haters.”

It is almost impossible to get a Twitter account back once it has been banned - even its most famous user, Donald Trump, who was suspended in January for inciting insurrection has been unable to return onto the site. “I am delighted to have achieved something that not even Donald Trump could do,” adds Mark. “Not that I would want to act for him.”

The Gnasher group say they still haven’t got to the bottom of exactly why they were banned. But the case came, conversely, as Twitter is under growing pressure to do more about racism. Earlier this month the Football Association and thousands of accounts around the word took part in a three-day social media boycott to try and get Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to do more about racism.

In the meantime, their Twitter suspension means GnasherJew are even more determined to keep exposing antisemites. “We have not been lazy during our absence,” they say. ‘’We have been investigating UNITE officials for antisemitism and there will be more to come on that topic on our Twitter feed and elsewhere. We want to thank everyone who supported us, it is a great feeling to see the antisemites on Twitter so upset about our reinstatement!”