Gee, Guess What Twitter Just Did to Accounts Critical of Elon Musk?
X, formerly known as Twitter, on Tuesday temporarily suspended the accounts of multiple prominent journalists and left-leaning commentators and comedians, many of whom were critical of X owner Elon Musk.
The social media platform gave no explanation for the sudden purge, saying only that the accounts “violate the X rules.” The X rules prohibit violent or hateful speech, child exploitation, private information sharing, and fake information.
But the accounts in question do not post that kind of content. The reporters who were banned include Steven Monacelli, a journalist at the Texas Observer who covers extremism, and Ken Klippenstein, who covers national security for The Intercept. Last year, Klippenstein published a piece on the errors with Tesla’s self-driving feature, and Monacelli noted that X shadow-banned the Intercept author since then.
MintPress News reporter Alan MacLeod, who recently has extensively covered Israel’s approach to the war in Gaza, and leftist podcaster Rob Rousseau were also suspended Tuesday.
The accounts for @liamnissan, @zei_squirrel, and the TrueAnon podcast were suspended, as well. The @liamnissan account posts mostly comedic commentary, including criticisms of Musk. The TrueAnon podcast provides left-wing analysis of current political events and conspiracy theories.
The @zei_squirrel account is another left-leaning commentator who has been critical of Musk in the past. In a post on their Substack Tuesday, the @zei_squirrel writer noted that they had recently begun to criticize Bill Ackman, a hedge fund billionaire and friend of Musk’s who helped lead the campaign against former Harvard University President Claudine Gay. Ackman’s wife was recently accused of plagiarism, the same charge that brought down Gay.
All of the suspended accounts were reinstated a few hours later, but initially with significantly lower follower counts than before.
This is at least the fifth time that X, under Musk, has purged accounts that are the slightest bit critical of him, his friends, or causes he supports. Shortly after taking the social network’s reins in October 2022, the self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist” banned the accounts of multiple actors and comedians who made fun of him.
Just a month later, accounts for people including Dean Baker, the senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, and Andrew Lawrence, deputy director of rapid response at the left-wing watchdog Media Matters, were temporarily suspended. Both men have been critical of Musk. Also that month, the accounts for several high-profile journalists including Keith Olbermann, Aaron Rupar, Ryan Mac, and Drew Harwell were temporarily suspended.
Dell Cameron, a reporter for Wired, was banned in April last year for reporting on the hacker who targeted far-right commentator Matt Walsh.
Ironically, if X wants to ban an account that violates platform rules, the company need look no further than its owner. Musk’s personal account is a major source of hate speech and disinformation. In addition to aggressively antisemitic posts, Musk also regularly lets Nazis back on X, shares transphobic content, and spreads conspiracy theories.
This article has been updated.