Darren Cooper posted the picture of Darryl Magher on his @sandwellleader profile.
Twitter suspended the account but it had been reinstated by 15:30 GMT.
Mr Magher said the Labour leader and Smethwick councillor had posted the image in a bid to suppress him and stop him asking difficult questions.
"He does not like being challenged and held to account," said Mr Magher, who runs a Facebook page about the Yew Tree area of Sandwell.
But Mr Cooper said the image concerned was already in the public domain.
He said he had been a victim of trolling and said the complaint was part of a campaign of harassment mounted against him.
Asked on BBC WM if he had done anything wrong, he said: "I don't think so. I try to stay within the realms of decency and modesty.
"People have a go at you, usually political opponents, and sometimes you have a go back, but I'm not aware of anything I have done that would breach Twitter rules."
Twitter said they did not comment on individual accounts for privacy and security reasons.
It referred the BBC to the website's rules.
The leader of Sandwell Council's Twitter account was temporarily suspended amid claims he had posted a private image of a community activist.